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NX  . 

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AUTHOR     OF    LYTERIA. 


BOSTON: 
TICK  NOR     AND    FIELDS 

M  DCCC  LVI. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 

J.     P.     QUINCT, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVERSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BY 

H.  0.  HOOGHTON  AND  COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


THE  structure  of  the  following  drama  is  in 
tended  to  resemble  that  of  the  Greek  tragedy. 
It  is  written  upon  an  event,  rather  than  a  plot ; 
the  scene  is  laid  in  the  open  air  before  the 
temporary  abode  of  royalty,  and  the  action  is 
limited  to  a  single  night.  The  attempt  has 
been  made  to  invest  a  character  with  some 
thing  of  the  dignity  and  moral  power  of  the 
tragic  chorus.  The  division  into  acts  is  in 
compliance  with  modern  usage  ;  the  pauses 
being  no  longer  than  those  that  must  be  sup 
posed  in  many  of  the  best  models  of  classic 
composition. 


2062130 


INTRODUCTION. 


THERE  are  few  instances  of  retributive  justice  more 
solemnly  striking,  than  may  be  gathered  from  notices  of 
the  death  of  the  third  Caesar,  in  the  writings  of  Suetonius 
and  Tacitus.  A  vigorous  constitution,  strengthened  by  the 
simple  habits  of  early  life,  enabled  Tiberius  for  a  time  to  re 
sist,  not  only  the  diseases  that  his  later  excesses  poured  upon 
him,  but  also  the  poison  that  was  covertly  administered  by 
those  in  the  interest  of  his  successor.  Stung  and  nettled  by 
the  taunts  and  execrations  that  arose  about  him,  we  read,  that 
the  dying  tyrant  would  at  one  time  strive  to  conceal  the  depth 
of  his  infamies,  and  at  another,  for  very  despair,  would  pub 
lish  them  in  reckle'ss  bravado  to  the  world.  Feeble  in  body 
and  a  prey  to  superstitious  fears,  Tiberius  journeyed  for  the 
last  time  towards  Rome.  Frightened  by  a  fancied  prodigy, 
and  seized  by  mortal  illness,  that  he  dared  not  acknowlege  to 
those  about  him,  the  emperor,  when  within  sight  of  the  city, 
turned  suddenly,  and  gave  the  order  to  press  back  again  to 
Capri.  By  increasing  the  extravagance  of  his  debaucher 
ies,  by  an  occasional  display  of  physical  power,  and  by  the 
constant  scorn  with  which  he  affected  to  treat  his  physician, 
Chariclcs,  the  unhappy  man  sought  to  disguise  his  true  condi 
tion  from  Caligula  and  his  adherents.  In  vain,  however,  was 
every  artifice — his  death  was  too  surely  seen  to  be  approach 
ing;  and  finally  Charicles  acknowledged  to  those  about  him  that 
(7) 


Till  INTRODUCTION. 

the  end  must  soon  come.  For  this  event  measures  were  imme 
diately  taken — councils  were  held  in  private  and  despatches 
sent  to  the  army  and  its  commanders.  Efforts  were  once  made 
to  induce  Tiberius  to  appoint  a  successor ;  but  even  in  the  ago 
nies  of  death,  he  grasped  the  signet  ring  strongly  upon  his 
hand,  and  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  taken.  Yet  not  only  was  the  - 
tortured  monarch  made  to  realize  the  plots  formed  against  him, 
and  the  contempt  of  those  who  should  have  been  bound  to 
his  interest  by  personal  favor  and  lavish  liberality ;  but  a 
punishment  of  strange  severity  was  reserved  for  him.  For 
upon  recovering  from  a  fainting  fit,  that  had  been  mistaken 
for  death,  he  found  Caligula  clothed  with  the  insignia  of  roy 
alty,  and  surrounded  by  a  band  of  fawning  courtiers.  The 
whole  party,  paralyzed  with  terror  at  his  unexpected  resusci 
tation,  for  a  time  gazed  stupidly  upon  the  maddened  tyrant. 
Finally,  Tiberius  was  thrown  upon  a  bed,  where,  at  the  order 
of  Macro,  he  was  deprived  of  life  by  suffocation. 

Most  of  the  incidents,  as  will  be  seen  by  a  reference  to  the 
note  at  the  close  of  the  volume,  are  to  be  found  in  the  histo 
rians  already  mentioned.  A  slight  dramatic  license  has  been 
taken  in  their  arrangement  and  amplification. 

The  characters  of  Tiberius  and  his  successor  are  intended 
to  be  consistent  with  their  historical  representation — the  for 
mer  having,  as  we  are  assured,  something  of  the  scholar  and 
the  poet  mingled  with  the  voluptuary,  the  tyrant,  and  the 
atheist ;  and  the  latter  screening  at  times  his  detestable  qual- 
ties  under  a  crafty  pretence  of  modesty  and  moderation. 

In  writing  the  part  of  Charicles,  who  is  simply  mentioned 
as  a  physician  in  the  train  of  Tiberius,  not  employed  to  pre 
scribe,  but  assisting  with  friendly  advice,  the  imagination  may 
be  allowed  some  liberty.  So  likewise  in  Ennia,  the  wife  of 
Macro,  historically  known  as  mistress  and  promised  empress 
of  Caligula. 


DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 

TIBERIUS. 

CAIUS  C.ESAR  CALIGULA. 

CHARICLES. 

LUCULLUS. 

CRASSUS. 

EXJUA. 

The  scene  is  an  open  space  before  the  villa  of  Lucullus.  At 
the  base  of  the  hill  upon  which  the  villa  stands,  are  buildings 
for  the  accommodation  of  soldiers,  retainers,  and  others.  The 
action  commences  about  sunset. 


(9) 


ACT  I. 

Luculhis,  Crassus. 

LUCULLUS. 

COMMANDS  he  then  the  shelter  of  our  villa 
For  a  night  only  ? 

CRASSUS. 

This,  I  cannot  tell ; 

For  a  strange  madness  sways  Tiberius  now, 
And  none  may  guess  his  pleasure ;  when  we  stood 
Scarcely  two  leagues  from  Rome,  with  travel  spent, 
And  joyed  to  see  her  domes  and  palaces 
Indent  our  northern  sky — the  Emperor, 
Gazing  upon  the  city,  staggered  back 
As  if  Fate's  finger  touched  him  ; — straight  he  cried, 
"  Turn  all  our  horses,  we'll  again  to  Capri !  " 
And  so,  unkemped  and  wearied,  back  we  toil, 
Till  some  fresh  freak  shall  seize  him,  or  till  Death, 

(ID 


12  CHARICLES: 

The  only  Brutus  left  these  craven  times, 
Shall  dare  to  strike  the  monster. 

LUCULLTJS. 

Soft,  I  pray, 

We  may  not  yet  give  word  unto  the  hope 
That  eager  dwells  within  us. 

CKASSUS. 

Nay,  the  end 

Hurries  upon  him,  although  desperate  will 
Still  wields  the  body.     At  Circejus  here, 
In  the  full  circus,  when  all  eyes  grew  bright 
As  the  speech  faded  on  his  rigid  lip, 
And  pain's  dull  gripe  wrinkled  his  face  in  sufferance, 
Two  massive  lances  from  the  guards  he  snatched, 
Rushed  to  the  front,  and  shouting  to  the  crowd 
"  Ccesar  is  mighty  yet !  " — 
With  certain  aim  transfixed  the  panting  boar, 
That  made  the  soldiers  pastime.     Nerving  thus 
His  arm  to  one  great  effort  that  drained  off 
The  dying  strength  of  nature,  back  he  reeled, 
And  carried  by  his  hirelings,  left  the  games 
A  shattered  mass  of  grossness. 


A  DKAMATIC  POEM.  13 


LUCULLUS. 

Charicles 
Was  with  him  when  he  fell  ? 

CRASSUS. 

Yes ;  to  recall 

A  life  that  crimsons  the  hard  cheek  of  earth, 
And  shames  the  patient  heaven  !     Strange  it  is 
That  wise  physician — whose  well-governed  mind 
And  vigorous  frame  conjure  the  chains  that  time 
Binds  on  his  latter  years,  and  show  them  garlands — 
Strange  such  as  he  should  use  his  hard-earned  skill, 
To  cheat  infernal  gods  of  their  ripe  victim  ! 

LUCULLTTS. 

'Tis  whispered  here  that  comradeship  of  youth, 
When  this  luxurious  reveller  bore  arms 
Nobly  against  the  Germans,  knit  so  close 
The  love  of  Charicles  to  this  our  tyrant, 
That  now, — of  all  the  crowd  of  sycophants, 
Soldiers,  relations,  courtesans,  who  press 
About  the  dying  monarch, — he  alone 
Stands  firm  and  faithful  to  keep  back  the  throng, 


14  CHARICLES  : 

Who  curse  the  lagging  energies  of  life, 
And  aid  the  fates  to  do  their  welcome  office. 

CBASSUS. 

The  ring  of  soldier's  steel  breaks  from  below  ! 
The  horsemen,  that  by  some  half-hour  precede 
The  Emperor,  already  fill  the  court. 

LUCULLTJS. 

Can  he  be  Macro  who  still  sits  his  steed 

While  all  descend  about  him  ? — no ;  he  wants 

The  crafty  courtesy  that  could  supplant 

The  powerful  Sejanus  ! — Dignity 

That  cannot  palter,  in  his  stillness  lives. 

A  knight  detains  his  stirrup — Ah,  his  step 

To  earth  wears  cautiousness  like  age.     He  speaks 

To  those  about  him,  while  he  bares  his  head 

In  salutation.     Whitened  locks  like  those 

Mark  only  one  in  all  the  monarch's  train. 

'Tis  the  physician  Charicles  ! 

CRASSUS. 

His  mien 
Cannot  be  counterfeit :    It  is  indeed 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  15 

That  brave  old  man  who  hither  bends  his  steps. 

The  freshness  and  the  vigorous  trust  of  youth 

Still  cling  about  him,  as  the  kindly  vine 

With  its  fond  verdure  wraps  the  storm-stripped  trunk 

In  richer  beauty,  than  when  summer  birds 

Wantoned  among  its  branches.     He  displays 

A  virtue  not  of  impulse,  or  that  temper 

Whose  native  mien  shows  fairly, — but  has  grown 

To  all  that  men  should  honor  by  hard  toil 

And  daily  self-denial.     As  we  praise 

The  fair  conception  that  the  artist  strikes 

From  shapeless  matter — rudely  shivering 

And  tearing  without  pity  through  the  rock, 

Until  his  thought  toils  slowly  into  form — 

So  let  us  reverence  him  who  doth  not  spare 

To  chafe  and  rend  his  being,  till  it  shrink 

To  beauty  more  divine  than  any  craft 

Can  mimic  to  the  sense. 

LUCULLUS. 

This  Charicles, — 

So  have  I  heard,  and  your  report  confirms, — 
Deserves  the  high  commending  of  a  man 
Who  dares  revere  a  truth,  before  the  crowd 


16  CHARICLES  : 

Are  scourged  to  worship  it, — whose  loyalty 
To  true  nobility  ungarlanded 
Is  ever  constant — yet  whose  generous  heart 
Hoodwinks  his  judgment  to  the  benefit 
Even  of  this  Tiberius. 

CRASSUS. 

He  is  here ; — 

Few  of  our  modern  youth  who  climbed  that  hill 
Would  breathe  so  easily. 

(Enter  Charicles.} 

You  speed  to-day ; 

We  thought  that  Charicles  could  ill  be  spared 
By  his  great  patient.     But  perhaps  even  now 
Rome's  prayers  are  answered,  and  Tiberius  lies 
Beyond  the  help  of  leech-craft. 

CHARICLES. 

Sir,  he  lives ; 

And  in  a  sudden  gust  of  strength  that  Will 
Drove  through  the  shrinking  fibres,  spurned  my  aid, 
And  bade  me  quit  his  presence ;  lest  the  people, 
While  a  physician  waited  at  his  side, 
Should  fancy  Caesar  mortal  ! 


A   DRAMATIC    POEM.  17 


CRASSUS. 

Stay  not  then 

A  moment  in  this  villa ! — he  will  repent 
This  rashness,  and  again  demand  thy  arm 
To  battle  off  his  doom.     Leave  him  to  those 
Who  dare  not  stay  the  vengeance  the  high  gods 
Devise  for  their  blasphemers. 

CHARICLES. 

I  must  not 

Desert  the  final  moments  of  a  man 
Whom  friendship  past  has  dowered  with  a  claim, 
That  in  his  sad  necessity  dispels 
The  difference  of  years.     We  combatted 
Together  by  the  Rhine ;  and  earlier  still 
In  that  fierce  Rhaetian  war  when  the  rough  Alps 
Leagued  all  their  bulk  against  us.     I  have  seen 
Tiberius,  tentless,  stretched  upon  the  earth, 
While  meanest  soldiers  with  their  blankets  screened 
Cold  starlight  from  their  faces  !     Through  long  nights 
He  gave  command  that  any  who  had  doubt 
Of  the  next  day's  success,  should  break  his  rest, 
And  hear  him  tell  again  the  well-laid  plans 
2 


18  CHARICLES  : 

That  promised  victory.     Our  studies  too 

Waked  better  sympathy :  the  Cassars  hold 

A  spirit  quick  to  seize  what  lesser  men 

By  grappling  and  hard  toil  with  grief  attain, 

And  his  bright  wit,  quick-flashing  on  the  task, 

Dispersed  all  doubts  that  shrouded  the  coy  truth. 

LUCULLUS. 

Methinks  that  Charicles  may  claim  discharge 
From  old  indebtedness,  in  saving  him 
Whom  Rome  calls  master,  from  a  blacker  deed 
Than  history  shall  whisper.     I  have  heard, 
From  one  who  served  at  Capri,  of  a  feast 
Where  poison  lurking  in  the  wine-brimmed  cups, 
Should  banquet  all  to  silence — had  not  he 
Who  planned  this  infamy,  summoned  in  haste 
A  certain  skilled  physician,  who  prepared 
An  antidote,  that  saved  the  guilty  man 
From  his  own  vile  contriving. 

CHARICLES. 

Such  report 

May  be  as  empty  as  the  thousand  tales 
Men  fable  of  their  rulers.     When  we  know 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  19 

The  open  baseness  of  this  sullied  man, 

We  need  not  crimes  that  secret  rumorers  breathe 

To  make  our  pity  fuller. 

CKASSUS. 

Hast  thou  then 

No  harsher  word  than  pity,  for  this  scourge 
Of  the  vexed  earth  !  this  mercy-mocking  fiend  ! 

CHARICLES. 

None,  none,  sir, — for  he  suffers.     While  the  gods 

Delayed  their  retribution,  there  was  room 

For  other  feeling.     Now,  when  every  grief 

Pours  on  his  naked  head — when  thick'ning  pangs 

Gnaw  through  the  aching  frame — and  the  hot  thoughts, 

Surging  in  chaos,  rise  and  beat  against 

The  rock  where  reason  lingers — when  the  men, 

Who  fawned  upon  his  greatness,  plot  his  death — 

And  friendless,  helpless  Age  in  sorrow  drifts 

To  that  dark  ocean,  where  unsightly  wrecks 

Of  powers  that  cursed  their  holder,  heave  and  toss 

In  ghastly  impotence — then,  anger  melts, 

Leaving  compassion,  awe,  and  tenderness. 


20  CHAKICLES : 


CRASSUS. 

Yonder  are  those  untouched  by  any  sense 
That  dulls  their  instant  profit — Caius  Caesar, 
And  with  him  Ennia,  whom  he  promises 
Success  shall  make  his  empress  ! 

CHARICLES. 

Let  me  then 

Withdraw  unnoticed,  for  the  Emperor 
Must  arrive  speedily.     I  would  put  off 
This  garment  soiled  by  travel,  and  prepare 
To  minister  in  these  emergencies. 

LUCULLUS. 

Then  follow,  sir,  our  villa  welcomes  all — 
Though  Caius  would  not  seek  to  shelter  one 
Who  comes  to  guard  what  he,  for  greater  cause 
Than  doth  possess  us  all,  plots  to  destroy ; 
While  Macro's  haughty  and  ungoverned  wife, 
Sold  by  her  lord's  ambition  and  her  own, 
Shall  brook  thy  presence  little  : — So  have  care, 
Her  hate  may  prove  most  deadly  ! 


A   DRAMATIC    POEM.  21 

CHARICLES. 

Fear  thee  not ; 

For  I  have  marked  this  woman,  and  observed 
Her  spirit  swell  beneath  indignities, 
Which  to  the  world  she  carries  mockingly, 
la  her  there  fails  that  mediating  sense 
To  temper  down  the  bright  ideal  of  thought, 
That  it  may  warm  to  healthiness  the  life 
Scorched  by  excess  of  lustre.     She  is  formed 
Of  fine  perceptions,  through  which  every  breath 
Vibrates  to  joy  or  agony  unknown 
To  coarse  and  passionless  existences. 
Such  beings  are  developed  in  convulsion  : 
Their  energies  unused  refuse  to  rust, 
But  do  ferment  and  strive  for  mastership. 
Strange,  to  confess  the  thousand  accidents 
That  make  us  as  we  are  ! — Do  we  part  here  ? 

LUCTJLLUS. 

This  way  for  thee.     I  go  below  to  greet 
The  Emperor  :  his  coming  will  be  sudden. 

(Exeunt  Lucullus  and  Charicles.) 


22  CHARICLES  : 


CRASSUS. 

How  hardly  stands  the  time  when  we  must  hail 
These  selfish  plotters,  who  for  private  gain 
V\rould  push  Tiberius  to  his  eager  grave, 
As  Rome's  best  patriots  ;  when  our  fingers  yearn 
To  doff  our  caps  to  this  Caligula, 
As  one  whose  very  blackness  must  show  fair, 
Contrasted  with  that  arch-oppressor's  wrongs, 
That  scourge  the  patient  earth  to  bitterness  ! 
(Enter  Cams  Ccesar  and  Ennia.} 

CAIUS. 
Ha,  Crassus  !     Was  it  Charicles  who  left  thee  ? 

CRASSUS. 

Ay,  sir,  he  came  but  now. 

CAIUS. 

Mistake !  mistake  ! 

He  should  have  fled  to  Rome— out  of  the  reach 
Of  daily  insult  and  indignity, 
That  pays  his  care  to  lengthen  out  a  life, 


A  DRAMATIC   POEM.  23 

Whose  blood  coins  riches  for  the  man  who  steals  it. 
Speed  after  him,  say  I  have  words  to  speak 
That  shall  ring  profit !     Quickly  bid  him  come  ! 

[Exit  Crassus. 

Foiled  by  this  man  again !  when  I  have  gained 
The  popular  voice,  which  may  to-morrow  call 
A  rival  to  take  up  the  falling  crown. 
The  guards,  as  yet  fresh-bribed,  are  well  prepared 
To  hail  me  monarch.     'Tis  to-night — this  night — 
The  sluggish  deputation  from  the  senate, 
Bought  by  long  fawning,  should  arrive  to  wait 
His  death,  to  call  me  instantly  to  fill 
The  lofty  seat  he  drops  from  : — and  this  night 
The  old  man  dies  !     This  must  be  compassed,  must, 
Despite  this  crafty  leech  who  long  enough 
Hath  shut  us  from  our  hope. 

ENNIA. 

Tiberius  drained 

The  drugs  that  Macro  mixed,  and  yet  defies  thee  : — 
Truly  our  Charicles  bears  spells  that  raise 
Immortal  aid  to  thwart  thy  purposes. 


24  CHARICLES  : 

CAIUS. 

He  must  be  gained  at  any  sacrifice ; 
And,  Ennia,  thou  canst  do  it.     Well  I  know 
The  crafty  words  and  winning  speciousness 
Of  a  shrewd  woman — and  a  fair  one  too. 
Thy  weapons  are  more  delicate  and  sure, 
Than  bribes  and  threats  that  I  might  vainly  use 
In  pressing  this  great  suit. 

ENNIA. 

Here  is  one  man 

Might  stand  uncovered  in  the  blaze  of  day, 
And  let  the  wholesome  sunshine  search  him  through, 
To  show  no  fleck  upon  him  !     Canst  thou  not 
Find  better  uses  for  these  purchased  wiles, 
Than  to  obscure  the  single  honest  light 
By  which  we  gauge  our  proper  infamies ! 

CAIUS. 

Waste  not  these  doughty  words  on  him  who  twirls 
Thee  and  thy  future  as  a  brittle  reed 
Between  his  fingers  \     Thou  art  mine.     Reflect 
How  I  could  bruise  the  life  that  I  have  sworn 
Shall  wear  imperial  greatness  ! 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  25 


ENNIA. 

As  thou  say'st, 

I  am  most  helpless.     On  and  upward  then — 
It  is  my  course  and  thine.     If  I  have  skill 
In  reading  stubborn  men,  no  promises 
Of  profit,  or  foreshadowed  retribution 
Can  sway  this  Charicles — impregnable 
On  all  pai'ts,  save  that  spot  where  honor  waves 
Her  insubstantial  sceptre.     But  let  me 
(If  fortune  so  far  help  us)  show  him  cause 
Why  this  man's  death  must  truly  glorify 
Him  who  invites  it — show  that  both  his  gods 
And  feeble  senators  will  count  him  blest, 
Whose  hand  frees  Rome  from  Capri's  guilty  lord,- 
And  he  is  ours  to  use  ! 

CAITJS. 

And  having  used, 

To  punish,  for  the  days  of  hope  deferred 
That  he  hath  cost  us.     I  shall  call  thee  empress 
Ere  the  dead  east  shall  redden  ;  but  to-night, 
We  work  !    No  sleep  or  revel  must  intrude 
Betwixt  our  deed  and  hope.    We  father  still 


26  CHAEICLES  : 

The  future  in  the  present,  and  our  fate 

Is  not  stretched  out  before  us,  but  is  shot 

By  our  own  effort  through  the  blank  hereafter, 

Where  only  fools  run  blindly.     Charicles 

Returns  :  to  thy  persuading  I  may  owe 

The  crown  we  both  shall  wear.     Be  resolute 

In  every  subtle  art  that  captives  men 

From  their  own  judgment.     Ennia  !  I  trust  thee. 

\_Exit  Caius  Caesar. 

ENNIA. 

I  shall  be  faithful,  and  will  have  success 

If  mortal  art  can  reach  it.     Then  away, 

Thou  image  and  perception  of  a  fate, 

That  wanders  cruelly  before  my  steps, 

Showing  a  sad,  calm  glory  which  doth  mock 

My  flushed  and  squandered  being  !    Let  me  quell 

The  phantom,  and  press  on — 

And  in  a  mazy  whirl  of  vivid  life, 

Surfeit  this  restless  soul.     Our  Charicles 

Worships  that  servile  spirit,  which  resigns 

Fortune's  best  gifts  for  some  fantastic  good 

Begot  in  reason's  dotage.     He  bows  not 

With  other  men  to  the  unbending  will 

Of  him  who  triumphs ;  but  refuses  still 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  27 

To  pay  the  natural  tribute  which  the  crowd 
Render  stern  purpose,  that  breaks  destiny, 
And  dazzles  men  with  what  it  steals  from  them. 
He  is  of  those  to  whom  substantial  things, 
Clouded  by  fancy,  seem  as  mockeries — 
And  who  would  sway  the  universe  by  dreams 
That  die  upon  their  acting. 

(Enter  Charicles.) 

It  shows  ill, 

Physician,  when  such  reverent  locks  appear 
'Midst  curled  and  scented  parasites.     We  thought 
That  spurned  by  this  mad  patient,  thou  had'st  fled 
Beyond  recalling,  that  his  folly  might 
Glare  on  his  dying  eyes. 

CHARICLES. 

Until  the  last 

I  wait  beside  him.     The  physician  sees 
Poor  nature  stripped  of  all  the  snares  she  throws, 
In  'her  bright  hours,  for  fickle  sympathy. 
All  hearts  can  feel  when  loveliness  is  touched 
With  the  quick  shaft  of  sorrow — when  the  soul 
Quits  earth  in  perfumed  robes  of  sentiment, 
And  genius,  dolphin-like,  from  the  dull  lash 


28  CHARICLES  : 

Of  its  own  agony  weaves  robes  of  light, 
And  bleeds  in  changing  beauty ; — but  when  pain 
Strikes  vulgar  want  or  selfish  luxury, — 
When  the  torn  breast  bares  to  the  gazer's  view 
Vice,  cruelty,  and  wretchedness,  that  strive 
And  mutiny  'gainst  fainting  reason, — then 
'Tis  our  place  to  stand  firmly,  and  support 
With  human  pity  what  remains  of  man, 
To  kind  oblivion. 

ENNIA. 

So  dost  thou  wrong- 
Snatching  the  healing  cordials  of  the  earth 
To  pour  through  bloated  veins,  while  younger  lives, 
Still  capable  of  good,  perish  unheeded  ! 

CHARICLES. 

He  who  hath  knowledge  to  renerve  the  pulse, 
May  not  thence  arrogate  the  power  to  give 
Or  hold  his  skill,  from  any  suffering. 
All  life  alike  claims  his  large  sympathy : 
The  dews  of  heaven  the  sombre  cypress  feed, 
Like  the  gay  poppy. 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  29 

ENNIA. 

A  starved  Pestilence 

Sits  pressing  his  foul  lip,  and  from  his  breath 
Drinks  hateful  sustenance  !     Thy  fatal  spell, 
That  holds  this  sordid  life,  oppresses  earth. 
The  senate  has  defied  him,  and  the  throng 
Bun  wildly  in  the  streets,  and  call  aloud 
That  his  dead  bones — for  oft  his  death  is  rumored — 
Be  thrown  like  carrion  to  the  yellow  stream 
That  cleanses  Rome.     Tiberius  to  the  Tiber — 
This  is  the  cry  that  dies  upon  the  breeze 
That  even  now  sweeps  by  us.     As  a  god 
Shall  he  be  worshipped,  who  the  state  shall  free 
From  this  incumbent  horror.     Caius  Caesar, 
Whom  nobles,  senate,  people,  long  to  crown, 
Shall  hold  him  in  his  heart,  who  boldly  strikes 
The  blow  to-night ;— or  but  forgets  to  shield 
Tiberius  from  the  hands  that  are  not  shamed 
To  do  their  country  service  ! — 

Charicles, 

I  thought  to  have  been  temperate  in  my  speech — 
But  craft  and  cautiousness  fit  not  the  time 
Or  business.     Freely  have  I  spoken  ; — so 
Return  thou  answer. 


30  CHARICLES  : 

CHARICLES. 

The  blanched  locks  I  wear 
Should  cover  no  ambition.     As  the  ear 
Dulls  to  the  harmonies  of  sense,  the  words 
Of  sober  duty  closely  press  themselves 
About  the  listening  heart.     Transgression  must 
Scourge  its  fooled  victim — though  its  knotted  whips 
Fret  not  those  younger  days,  when  our  fresh  strength 
Leaps  laughingly  to  pleasure's  winning  pipe. — 
Thou  art  most  beautiful ; — I  cannot  think 
That  even  Capri  can  have  all  debauched 
A  soul  enshrined  thus  fairly.     Do  not  seek 
To  bitter  the  high  place  that  shall  be  thine 
By  shedding  royal  blood — tho'  thick  with  guilt — 
That  thee  and  thine  has  patroned. 

ENNIA. 

While  we  speak, 

The  young  Tiberius  hurries  to  the  side 
Of  the  crazed  dotard,  who  in  some  mad  freak 
May  lift  him  to  the  throne  ; — then  there  must  flow 
More  blood  and  richer,  than  supplies  the  veins 
Of  one  shrunk  tyrant ! 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  31 

CHABICLES. 

Nay,  if  as  thou  say'st 
The  empire  claim  thy  Caius  for  her  lord, 
Be  sure  that  her  great  voice  shall  drown  the  cries 
Of  a  dream-flattered  youth.     My  daily  craft 
Has  given  skill  to  read  the  signs  that  Death 
Stamps  on  the  brow  of  the  worn  wretch  he  bids 
To  slumber  in  his  chamber*.     Ere  the  sun 
Shall  thrice  revisit  us,  this  man  shall  lie 
Beyond  the  thrust  of  malice.     Do  not  snatch 
So  rudely  at  a  life,  that  while  we  speak 
Melts  from  between  thy  hope  and  its  fulfilment. 
(Re-enter  Caius  Ccesar.) 

CAIUS. 

Hast  thou  sped  well  ?     Speak,  woman, 
For  our  stained  uncle,  stung  with  pain  and  travel, 
Now  rages  in  the  court !     Physician,  say, 
Is  our  suit  granted  ? 

CHARICLES. 

What  is  honest,  sir, 
There  needs  no  suit  to  press.     Proposals  base 


82  CHARICLES  : 

Cling  not  to  my  remembrance  ;  and  perchance 
The  sight  of  this  grieved  man,  whose  failing  steps 
His  menials  scarce  support  to  where  we  stand, 
Shall  banish  them  from  yours,  and  turn  this  guilt 
To  sober  admiration  at  the  doom 
The  god-defier  tastes. 

The  Emperor ! 

(Enter  Tiberius,  attended.     He  is  followed  by 
Lucuttus,  and  many  others.) 

TIBERIUS. 

Hail,  friends  !     Ha,  Charicles,  what  brought  thee  here  ? 
'Twas  not  my  order.     Take  thy  face  from  hence  ! 
Our  tree,  though  something  bent,  is  still  well  sapped, 
And  needs  no  gardening.     Speed  thee  to  Rome — 
There  suck  the  purses  of  the  credulous  crowd, 
The  food  of  priests  and  doctors  ! 

CHARICLES. 

As  a  friend, 

An  early  and  a  true  one,  I  entreat 
Your  leave  to  tarry. 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  33 

TIBERIUS. 

As  a  friend,  then,  stay — 

For  we  have  need  of  such.     "Tis  said  the  people 
Armed  with  petitions,  ay,  and  with  clubs  too, 
Pour  from  the  neighboring  country  to  besiege 
Our  final  night  on  their  curst  continent ! 
To-morrow's  dawn  embarks  us  all  for  Capri. 
If  thou  dost  stay,  bewitch  thy  sober  face 
With  wine  and  garlands ;  or  if  thou  wilt  deign 
The  reek  of  slaughter  won  with  ruder  arms 
Than  thy  familiar  physic — join  my  guards, 
And  hew  these  beggars  to  the  thirsty  earth, 
Which  from  plebeian  blood  elaborates 
A  blooming  vesture  to  out-do  and  shame 
Our  gewgawed  lemans ! 

Orders  were  despatched 
To  have  a  banquet  ready !     Is  it  served  ? — 
I  have  heard  something  of  the  sunny  grape, 
Whose  essence  cribbed  in  your  sealed  jars  too  long, 
Craves  resurrection  to  renew  its  summer 
In  these  chilled  hearts  we  bear.     Am  I  not  answered ! 
Is't  ready!   Ha! 

3 


34  CHARICLES  : 


LUCULLUS. 

The  nimble  servants  speed 
With  loyalty  still  anxious  in  your  service. 
Our  tables  bending  with  their  choicest  load 
Shall  soon  invite  your  highness.     But  this  coming 
Was  something  sudden.     We  entreat  your  patience. 

TIBERIUS. 

'Twas  not  well  done  !     Feasts  constantly  replenished 
Should  have  awaited  us.     When  we  descend 
From  our  fair  island,  and  do  deign  to  tread 
The  vulgar  earth  men  live  on,  you  should  know 
How  Caesar  must  be  welcomed  ! 

Ennia, 

Mix  for  me  wine  as  thou  wert  wont  at  Capri, 
And  bring  it  straight,  for  faintness  is  upon  me !  Haste,  I  say ! 

[Exit  Ennia. 

See  there  our  doctor ;  how  from  far  he  smells 
His  chance  of  meddling  profit.     Keep  thy  drugs 
For  slaves  and  frightened  women  !     Know  our  faintness 
Is  caused  by  travel — and  already  passes ; 
What  canst  thou  do,  poor  leech  ! — fatten  on  fools  ! 
When  the  time  comes,  we  die. 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  35 

CHAKICLES. 

Ay,  sir,  we  die. 

But  if  the  time  should  lag,  man  can  select 
Some  drug  whose  active  potency  is  proved 
Swift  to  wind  up  the  hours ; — and  when  the  pulse 
Strikes  off  a  day  at  every  maddening  beat, 
He  can  choose  yet  again,  and  with  a  drop, 
Distilled  from  other  vegetable  life, 
Undo  the  deadly  errand  of  the  first. 
Holds  Caesar  not,  unrecognized,  perchance, 
Some  old  example  in  his  memory 
That  fits  the  saying  ! 

TIBERIUS. 

Cease  thy  prating,  peace ! 
I  keep  no  memories : — but  for  a  jest, 
I'll  practise  thee  with  seeming,  and  feign  aches 
And  knotted  cramps,  that  shall  thy  craft  o'erwhehn ! 
Say  on  this  spot  a  gnawing  horror  pressed 
Storming  the  seat  of  life,  and  sending  forth, 
'Gainst  this  dependency  and  that,  fierce  pains 
That  burned  into  the  flesh.     Say  that  this  brow 
Pent  in  a  sullen  madness,  that  must  soon 
Burst  through  the  cracking  flood-gates  of  the  will, 


36  CHARICLES  : 

And  rage  in  every  fibre — that  this  hand 
Uncertain,  palsied,  could  no  longer  clutch 
The  potency  that  warmed  the  sluggish  clay 
With  a  faint  show  of  being — add  to  all 
A  tortured  consciousness,  weak  to  repel 
The  blazing  thoughts  that  a  blood-craving  fate 
Rained  thick  upon  the  brain ! — If  such  a  wretch, 
Steeped  thus  in  fullest  aggregate  of  woe, 
Cumbered  the  earth — what  couldst  thou  do  for  him  ? 

CHARICLES. 

Nothing ; — but  smooth  the  painful  path  to  death. 

TIBERIUS. 

Art  thou  foiled  now !   drug  then  the  foolish  crowd — 
When  evils  league  to  crush  a  monarch's  life, 
They  scorn  man's  frail  resistance.     Yet  thou  know'st 
We  are  yet  free  from  pangs,  that  shall  dispel 
The  soft  enchantments  of  the  sensuous  world, 
Ere  we  are  called  to  leave  it.     Thou  hast  seen 
This  arm  more  truly  hurl  the  death-fraught  lance 
Than  any  practised  stripling.     Well,  sir,  judge 
Are  we  not  Cassar  still !— only  a  little  weary. 


A   DRAMATIC    POEM.  37 

CHARICLES. 

Seek  stillness,  then ; — the  only  medicine 
To  soothe  the  ill  thou  bearest.     Put  away 
This  purposed  madness  of  red  revelry — 
Relax  the  cords  that  bind  thy  troubled  soul 
To  worldly  pettiness.     Withdraw  apart — 
For  fickle  sleep  is  soonest  won  alone. 

TIBERIUS. 

Alone  !  alone  ! — each  nauseous  drug  thou  own'st 
Were  sweet  to  such  a  horror.     We  have  climbed 
The  Alpine  heights  together — grasping  oft 
The  rugged  shrub,  whose  roots  more  firmly  cling 
To  their  dead  rock,  than  any  gaudy  flower 
To  the  warm  earth  that  feeds  it : — thus  it  is 
When  every  joy  has  perished,  the  starved  heart 
Cleaves  with  its  total  being  to  a  world 
Barren  of  any  comfort.     Solitude  ! 
I  loathe  its  deadly  presence,  and  grow  sick 
Even  as  the  brain  now  dreams  it. 

Charicles, 

A  word  apart  with  thee,  that  the  vexed  soul 
May  cast  the  fiend  that  haunts  it.     Thou  hast  dreamed 
Some  show  of  truth  in  the  weak  jugglery 


38  CHARICLES  : 

Fashioned  by  priestly  knaves  to  drain  their  dupes ! 
Perchance  to  this  foul  tenement  we  hold 
Thy  folly  gives  a  subtler  principle 
Than  self-informing  matter  !     Thy  faint  heart 
Projects  its  best  of  being  from  itself, 
And  as  a  god  adores  it — as  a  god 
Cursed  and  dethroned  by  all  the  miseries 
That  plough  the  world  thou  giv'st  him.    Nay,  no  word- 
Till  I  have  scared  thee  with  a  prodigy, 
That  shah1  out-wonder  thy  weak  phantasy  ! 
Thou  hast  beheld  Apollo's  marbled  form 
Stand  in  our  hall  at  Capri — stand  as  fixed 
As  our  strong  watch-tower,  whose  deep-seated  base 
Grows  to  the  stable  earth.     What  thought  hadst  thou 
When  this  perfection  sunned  thee  with  its  life  ? 

CHARICLES. 

The  thought  of  one  whose  study  contemplates 
Maimed  and  diseased  mankind.     In  awe  I  stood 
Before  the  stone-cast  dream,  that  mirrored  forth 
A  human  form  ransomed  from  every  flaw 
Prophetic  of  infirmity  and  death ! 
Long  silently  I  marvelled  ; — till  at  length, 
Drawing  its  fire  from  the  fooled  gazer's  eye, 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  39 

A  consciousness  divine  inhabited 
This  shrine  too  noble  for  mortality. 

TIBERIUS. 

This  image,  sir — mark  me,  I  pray  thee  now — 
A  mass  of  stone,  dead,  senseless,  chilly,  mute, 
Ay,  so  thou  think'st  it, — heaved  its  rigid  arm, 
And,  as  alone  in  speechless  trance  I  stood 
Before  the  vital  marble,  breathed  my  name 
In  voice  whose  terrible  music  fills  my  soul ; — 
Which,  for  a  moment's  calmness,  must  yield  up 
The  rash  prediction  to  thy  doubting  ear. 
"  God-mocking  monarch  " — these  the  very  words, 
Echoed  by  night  and  day  have  they  not  sunk 
Deep,  deep  into  my  being  ! — "  know  the  doom, 
That  tardy  justice  for  her  scoffers  rears, 
Breaks  on  thy  guilty  head.     No  hand  of  thine 
Shall  place  this  spotless  marble  in  the  niche 
Whereto  'tis  destined!     This  stained  island  jly — 
Thy  friends  desert  thee — E'en  the  very  stones, 
That  thou  hast  heaped  in  palaces  and  towers, 
In  fragments  strew  the  earth  !     Away  to  die — 
To  die  upon  the  shore  whose  tainted  sands 
ShaU  shame  to  hide  thee  !  " 


40  CHARICLES  : 


CHARICLES. 

Sir,  these  sombre  words 
Were  but  the  fancies  of  a  troubled  mind, 
Which,  sick  with  apprehension,  turned  its  dreams 
To  horrors  palpable. 

TIBERIUS. 

And  thus  thou  think'st  them- 
Thou,  so  weakly  duped ! — 
Teeming  with  boyish  faith,  thy  heart  can  feel 
The  breath  of  deity  in  monstrous  forms, 
That  strew  the  bitter  earth.     In  stream  and  grove, 
The  slavish  soul  thou  bearest  paints  a  god, 
Steeped  in  our  human  frailties  ; — hopes,  fears,  hates, 
Loves,  virtues,  crimes,  spawned  of  thy  impotence, 
Thou  giv'st  the  natural  essence  named  by  thee 
Creator,  Jove,  or  Pho3bus  !     Doubt  this  sense — 
Question  the  miracle  these  eyes  have  seen  ! 
Hug  dead  delusions — defraud  reason  still ! 

CHARICLES. 

The  studies  I  have  followed,  and  yet  more, 
Such  observation  as  our  cautious  craft 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  41 

Hails  as  its  best  instructor,  teach  disease 
May  trick  the  eye  with  fancies,  that  shall  grow 
In  the  red  light  of  frenzy — from  the  brain 
Stealing  a  motion,  form,  and  utterance, 
To  cheat  the  mind  that  'gets  them.     Then  distrust 
The  false  impressions  that  the  senses  draw 
From  worlds  of  their  creation.     But  go  forth 
When  the  pure  soul,  unscorched  by  feverish  draughts, 
Hovers  from  earth  with  every  fervent  note, 
That  swells  in  nature's  anthem — there  receive 
Undoubting,  such  belief  as  the  young  breeze 
Wafts  in  upon  thy  spirit.     Know  the  calm 
That  falls  so  softly  on  the  passive  mind 
Is  not  begot  of  falsehood ! — know  the  Power, 
That  clothed  with  life,  light,  action,  sweeps  us  on 
Towards  Beauty  and  Perfection,  is  no  dream, — 
Howe'er  our  weak  conception  bodies  it ! 
(A  Messenger  enters.) 

TIBERIUS. 

Thou  art  from  Capri,  fellow  !     Are  thy  galleys, 
That  shall  to-morrow  bear  us  to  our  isle, 
Safe  anchored  in  the  bay  ? 


42  CHARICLES  : 


MESSENGER. 

They  wait  the  will 

Of  Caesar  ; — if  again  he  choose  to  tread 
The  spot  that  Jove  has  manifestly  cursed. 

TIBERIUS. 

Ah.  frightened  knave !     What  say'st  thou  ! 

MESSENGER. 

That  which  these  eyes  have  seen.     This  morning,  sir, 

As  our  calmed  vessels  slowly  float  from  shore, 

The  rock-girt  island  seemed  to  toss  its  bulk 

Like  our  frail  bark  when  winter's  tempest  blows. 

Thy  stony  palaces  were  bent  and  swayed 

Like  the  weak  mast  we  govern.     Then  the  tower, 

Proud,  lofty  mass  that  frowns  upon  the  deep, 

Reeling  from  side  to  side,  quivered  and  fell 

In  thunder  on  the  beach ! — A  sudden  breeze 

Now  rising  from  the  south,  swelled  our  dead  sails, 

And  bore  us  trembling  from  this  scene  of  havoc. 

TIBERIUS. 
Physician,  hast  thou  ears — or  are  they  fooled 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  43 

Like  eyes  of  mine  !     Frenzy,  thy  breath  is  on  me  ! 

Wine  !  wine  there  ;  bring  it  quickly !     This  grotesque 
Fantastic  fable  should  be  quenched  and  drowned 
With  all  the  sable  shapes  that  flock  to  it. 
(Emnia  returns.) 

ENNIA  (apart  to  Gains). 
The  wine  is  mixed  by  Macro — potently 
To  lull  all  pain  asleep.     I  am  enough 
Fouled  in  your  service,  and  will  do  no  more. 
Be  thou  the  cup-bearer, — if  yet  thy  will, 
Uncancelled  by  remorse,  thrust  at  his  life. 

CAIUS. 

I  have  no  fear  to  act  the  thing  I  think 
Like  whim-besotted  women.     Give  it  me  ! 

Caesar,  the  wine  is  craftily  infused — 
Thus  spiced  and  freshly  mingled,  marvel  not 
That  simple  men  in  ecstasy  supreme 
Called  him  divine  who  gave  it ! 

Ennia,  see, 
How  eagerly  he  lifts  it  to  his  lips. 


44  CHARICLES  : 

Soon  are  we  safely  anchored  to  that  shore 
That  long  has  fled  before  our  quickened  hope. 

CHARICLES 

(advancing,  takes  the  cup  from   Tiberius,  and  pours  the 

wine  upon  the  earth). 

Give  something  to  the  gods  !  Thy  guilty  court 
Dwelt  not  at  Capri  when  its  towers  were  razed  ! 
One  poor  libation  meanly  pays  such  mercy  ! 

TIBERIUS  (after  a  pause). 
There  is  but  one  of  all  this  scented  band 
That  durst  so  honor  them.     Yet  heed  thee,  heed, 
Lest  thou  presume  too  long  on  friendship  past, 
And  one  day  bleed  for  like  officiousness. 

LUCULLUS. 

The  festal  music  that  now  rings  within, 
Calls  Caesar  to  the  feast  our  hasting  zeal 
Has  heaped  to  match  his  order. 

TIBERIUS. 

Life  freshens  at  the  sound,  and  the  warmed  heart 
Leaps  to  the  melody  !     Physician,  come, 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  45 

Pour  thy  libations  to  a  mortal  god 

Whom  it  shall  profit  something.     Have  we  garlands  ? 

LUCULLUS. 
This  is  the  youth  who  bears  them. 

TIBERIUS. 

Crown  me,  boy ; 

This  yielding  band  of  roses  soothes  the  brow 
That  aches  with  costly  metal ! 

Is  the  earth  firm ! — 

Methought  it  shook  and  heaved  but  now  like  that 
He  told  us  of  at  Capri !     Prodigy  ! 
Ye  all  are  stable,  while  I  stagger  here 
As  one  who  walks  the  galley's  slippery  deck, 
When  tempests  lift  our  navies.     To  the  feast — 
We  should  reel  after.     Help  me  on,  I  say, 
The  will  of  Caesar  lives ! — yet  fitfully 
It  flashes  : — Charicles — thy  hand — thy  hand — 
How  cold  it  seizes  mine.     Upon  thy  life 
No  word  !  on — on — Ca3sar  rules  Caesar  still ! 

Lucullus,  well  this  thirsty  throng  shall  prove 
The  wine  your  jars  have  ripened  ;  while  our  band 


46  CHARICLES  : 

Of  dancers  and  trained  singers  shall  show  thee 

What  gods  we  keep  at  Capri.     Ha,  our  wreath 

Has  fallen — Bring  another  !     Ennia, 

The  flush  upon  thy  cheek  rivals  these  flowers. 

Our  race,  good  Caius,  ever  won  the  smile 

Of  Roman  beauty — thou  art  one  of  us  ! 

The  music  quickens.     "Why  stand  prating  here — 

And  let  the  ruddy  moment  of  delight 

Solicit  us  in  vain  !     On  to  our  revel ! 

[Exeunt. 


The  Act  closes. 


ACT  H. 

Ennia  enters  from  the  villa. 

ENNIA. 

A  moment  pour  thy  cooling  breath,  oh  night, 
Athwart  my  restless  bosom.     Ye  cold  stars, 
Freeze  up  those  quickened  feelings  which  at  times — 
As  even  now  they  do — struggle  beneath 
The  weight  of  years  and  folly.     Should  the  heart 
Still  nourish  its  own  venom — fret  and  waste 
A  languid  being  in  the  narrow  path 
Where  custom  binds  it !     No  ;  though  cramped  by  man, 
Toyed,  wheedled,  slaved,  at  last  we  break  the  chain, 
Renounce  all  mercy,  tenderness,  remorse, 
And  glut  our  starving  passion.     Let  no  dream 
Of  rest,  revived  affection,  or  of  rays 
Familiar  hope  once  flickered,  touch  the  soul 
That  fate  sweeps  on  to  power ! — 
(47) 


48  CHARICLES  : 

Music  again 

Charges  the  air  with  pity  ; — mortal  grief 
Pours  forth  its  plaint  in  harmonies  of  art, 
Snatches  the  strolling  breeze,  and  clogs  its  flight 
Toned  with  a  human  sorrow.     Hence  !  oh  hence, 
Thou  language  of  the  soul  that  mocks  our  life, 
By  rumoring  a  being  all  refined 
From  the  dull  dross  that  drags  this  feebleness, 
Earthward  from  whence  'twas  fashioned  ! 

The  young  moon, 

Bedded  in  fleecy  vapor,  streams  repose 
Vainly  on  this  torn  spirit.     Glimmer  on, 
Thou  passive,  icy  wonder,  which  our  priests 
Have  mantled  in  a  woman's  fickleness  ! 
Hadst  thou  the  choler,  rancor,  spite,  hate,  love, 
That  ravens  on  her  breast,  thy  drowsy  beams 
"Would  sparkle  sharply  through  the  scattered  night, 
And  dumb  with  awe  thy  quaking  worshippers. 
Sea  gust ! — who  sportest  with  the  floating  mists, 
That  heave  and  drift  above  me — lift  my  soul 
To  wander  freely  among  airy  things, 
Grotesque  imaginations,  that  may  dull 
This  aching  need  of  loving — born  to  crave, 
Sting,  perish,  never  to  be  satisfied  ! 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  49 

Away  thou  life  most  false  and  incomplete  ! 
Yearn,  languish  all  my  being  !  then  create 
Ideal  nothings,  worthy  to  provoke 
Thy  possible  delirium  of  bliss, 
The  energy  and  madness  of  thy  love. — 
Flit  then  before  me  fair,  absorbing  shape 
Wrapped  in  unearthly  power, — let  my  life, 
Spurning  its  selfish  action,  melt  in  thine 
And  quicken  there  to  ripeness  ! 

Loud  debauch 

Swells  through  the  opening  gates  !     Some  parasites 
Reel  forth  to  chill  their  fever-whirling  blood 
From  the  cold  breast  of  night !     This  wooded  path 
Shall  shield  me  from  their  banter  and  light  talk. 
(As  the  doors  of  the  villa  open,  a  burst  of  revelry  is  heard. 
Then  enter  Charicles.) 

CHARICLES. 

Close  up  your  doors  again  !     Shut  drunken  mirth 
And  mad  disorder  in  the  tainted  cell, 
That  dulls  their  guilty  jangle  to  the  ear 
Of  modest  nature ! — 

Let  me  worship  here. 
The  sainted  benediction  of  the  night 
4 


50  CHARICLES  : 

Floats  softly  through  her  temple.     Every  breath 

Charged  with  the  fragrance  of  the  blooming  earth, 

Wafts  absolution  to  the  soul  that  feels 

All  error,  foolishness,  and  doubt  apart 

From  its  true  being.     We  do  flaw  ourselves, 

So  nobly  fashioned,  deeming  we  may  not 

Wipe  out  the  stain  our  youthful  wildness  trucked 

For  pleasure  coveted.     We  are  not  mocked, 

Feeling  that  man  must  triumph  over  sense, 

Which  now  he  combats  weakly.     Aching,  scarred 

At  every  pore,  the  clay-enchanting  life 

Deserts  the  baffled  soldier  ;  yet  we  know 

Those  thrusts  and  buffets  that  his  dying  arm 

Drops  feebly  on  his  victor,  still  shall  earn 

A  life  immortal  on  the  painted  page, 

That  chronicles  to  the  remotest  time 

The  patriot's  fruitless  courage  !     Oh  thou  god, 

Or  gods,  or  natural  principle  of  right, 

Which  blindly  we  must  worship  ! — shall  we  not 

Receive  again  unmaimed  the  soul  we  lose, 

Battling  with  evil  that  has  vanquished  us  ! 

ENNI A   (coming  forward  ) . 
Does  the  physician,  doubting  his  own  art, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  51 

Beseech  night's  chilly  finger  to  retard, 

And  time  the  throbbing  of  the  hurried  heart — 

Even  like  an  unskilled  woman  ! 

CHARICLES. 

The  live  air 

Pours  subtler  vigor  through  the  healthy  frame, 
Than  any  draught  wrung  from  the  soothing  weed, 
Or  quick'ning  root,  at  bitter  need  expert 
To  minister  to  man. 

ENNIA. 

Your  patient,  sir — 

Does  he  still  suffer,  play  the  boy,  and  mock 
The  hand  that  holds  dominion  in  his  grasp  ? 

CHARICLES. 

The  frenzy  of  his  revel  ebbs ;  the  eye, 
That  flashed  with  fearless  lustre,  dully  falls 
Upon  the  wanton  throng.     The  lips  that  late 
(So  thou  hast  seen)  flung  sparks  of  ribald  jest 
On  all  that  nature  hallows,  murmur  now 
And  ooze  a  childish  prattle.     Caius  Caesar, 
Silenced  in  wonder,  gazes  fearfully 


52  CHARICLES  : 

Upon  his  sinking  kinsman, — seeing  well 
The  sudden  culmination  of  his  hope 
Outstrip  conspiracy  and  parricide. 

ENNIA. 

There  is  a  mercy  yet !     The  wretch  shall  die 
By  Heaven's  stroke,  not  ours — Assurance  blest, 
I  clasp  thee  !     And  perchance  before  the  last, 
His  conscious  mind  may  calmly  designate 
Our  Caius  his  successor :  then  we  rule 
Untortured  by  the  furies  rumor  feigns 
Shall  haunt  usurpers. 

CHARICLES. 

It  can  hardly  be 

The  mind  shall  so  resume  its  healthy  function, 
As  to  prepare  in  calmness  for  an  end, 
That,  recognized,  must  hurl  the  startled  soul 
Into  chaotic  torture.     Memories  past, 
And  images  of  terror,  uncontrolled 
By  manly  will,  mingle  with  present  things, 
And  in  a  sore  perplexity  of  sense, 
Crush  out  the  feeble  reason.     Life  will  end 
In  a  vague  dream,  unbroken  into  time, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  58 

While  unconnectedly  the  avenging  thoughts, 
Draped  all  in  ghastly  horror,  dimly  flit 
About  the  jaded  brain.     So  far  as  art 
Foretells  what  shall  be,  by  experience 
Of  what  has  been,  thus  shall  the  monarch  die. 

ENNIA. 

And  thus  we  climb  to  power ; — power,  that  will  make 

Our  lives  decay  as  his  !     So  we  still  pant 

For  an  ideal  existence,  to  supply 

The  stimulus  to  being,  which  we  crave 

To  thrust  us  from  this  passionless  routine 

Of  present  meanness,  folly,  and  contempt 

At  the  poor  show  we  witness.     The  fooled  soul 

Must  struggle  on, — not  turn  upon  itself 

In  sickening  revolution.     Oh  sir,  say — 

For  from  thy  presence  seems  to  flow  a  charm 

That  wrests  the  question  from  me — is  there  not 

Some  cunning  trick  to  turn  to  harmony 

The  discords,  harsh  and  clashing,  that  repel 

The  love,  the  peace  we  covet  ? 

CHARICLES. 

* 

We  are  not  left 


54  CHARICLES  : 

To  totter  down  to  death,  swayed  to  and  fro 

By  every  breath  of  passion.     Mastership 

Of  our  own  thought,  won  and  preserved 

Through  effort,  shall  invest  the  craving  mind 

"With  calmness  ;  but  this  faculty  divine 

Comes  slow  and  rarely  to  our  fickle  race. 

Yet  those  there  are,  who  can  the  will  command, 

Banish  the  frivolous  degrading  doubt, 

And  singly  turn  the  workings  of  the  soul 

To  one  great  object.     Such  a  quality 

Is  priest  and  sovereign  unto  him  who  holds  it. 

ENNIA. 

I  recognize  a  wisdom  in  thy  words 

That  we  can  never  reach.     To  know  a  peace 

Beyond,  above  us,  is  the  misery 

That  mocks  our  impotence  !     Art  thou  a  man 

So  wrapt  and  crusted  in  with  smoky  dreams, 

That  no  conception  of  a  happiness, 

Not  won  but  hourly  grasped  at,  goads  thy  soul  ? 

CHAKICLES. 

Strength  to  conceive  the  thing  we  may  not  gain 

»• 

Shall  bless  or  curse  us,  at  our  proper  choice. 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM. 

To  strive  for  good, — not  to  abide  in  good, 
Is  destiny  most  noble.     We  are  palled 
In  our  vexed  youth  to  find  the  thing  we  love 
Melt  from  our  grasp  ; — then,  waking,  we  perceive 
That  the  hot  hope  that  struggled  in  the  mind 
Repelled  the  sober  blessing  nature  pours 
Most  tenderly  on  all.     Bosomed  in  peace, 
We  prison  our  own  souls,  and  torture  them 
With  petty  toys  Fate  dances  in  the  air, 
Which  touched,  must  fade  and  turn  to  bitterness. 
(Enter  Gains  Ccesar.) 

CAIUS. 

Physician,  thou  hast  saved  us  !  and  shalt  tell 

The  doubting  world  Tiberius  died  untouched 

By  mortal  instrument.     He  labors  now, 

And  fights  off  death  but  feebly ;  and  we  hope 

Before  the  last,  he  shall  be  urged  to  name 

Ourselves  to  take  the  throne.     Our  title  then 

Cannot  be  shaken.     I  withdraw  awhile, 

Lest  some  should  say  through  tricking,  and  by  fright, 

I  wrung  the  crown  from  him : — but  go  thou  in, 

To  witness  what  my  zealous  partisans 

Shall  plague  him  into  uttering.     Men  will  deem 


56  CHARICLES  I 

Thy  evidence  unpurchased.     Tarry  not — 
Know  it  shall  profit  all. 

CHARICLES. 

I  am  obedient. 

ENNIA. 

How  meekly  our  sage  scholar  bows  his  head 
To  win  the  smile  of  Power  !     His  plans,  most  noble — 
But  their  expression  in  the  life,  how  mean ! — 
Nay  pardon,  Charicles,  my  shrewish  tongue 
Libelled  the  heart  most  foully ; — thou  art  not 
Wrenched  from  thy  course  by  interest  or  threat ; 
But  envying  thee  too  much,  I  seize  suspicion, 
And  doubting  thee,  loathe  less  my  tarnished  self. 

CHARICLES. 

I  go  to  hush  the  brawling  company, 
Who  siege  the  bloated  fragment  of  a  man, 
That  I  have  once  called  friend.     Humanity 
Shall  not  be  wholly  driven  from  the  wretch, 
Who  lingers  there,  self-filed  and  desolate  ! 

[  Charicles  returns  to  the  villa. 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM. 
CAIUS. 

Answer  him  not !     Check  not  his  shallow  whims, 
For  now  I  prize  his  presence,  who  shall  give 
The  people  surety  that  the  steps  I  mount, 
Are  spotted  not  by  blood. 

ENNIA. 

Art  thou  secure 
If  he  names  no  successor, — or  another  ? 

CAIUS. 

'Tis  but  a  new  assurance  that  I  seek 
Of  what  is  now  most  certain.     Grant  he  dies 
Not  naming  me  his  heir — then  I  shall  rise 
By  clamor  of  the  army,  and  paid  throats 
Of  vassal  senators — paid  to  pretend 
A  general  call  to  power ; — yet  the  sway 
Yielded  by  act  of  his  I  doubly  gripe, 
And  dare  the  gods  to  cast  me ! 

ENNIA. 

Yet  'tis  strange, 
How  in  the  presence  of  this  Charicles, 


58  CHARICLES  : 

Our  plotted  height  of  power  crumbles  to  meanness. 

These  eager  hopes  in  vapid  languor  die, 

And  my  soul  feels  the  weary  ache  of  climbing. 

CAIUS. 

Look  on  me  then,  and  shelter  here  thy  weakness. 
Think  when  thy  hand  shall  wield  imperial  sway, 
When  from  thine  eye,  power,  like  its  beauty,  flashes, — 
How  thou  mayst  burn,  ay,  brand  with  usury, 
Into  the  hearts  of  certain  jealous  matrons, 
Old  scorn  and  spite  ! 

ENNIA. 

There,  thou  hast  made  me  strong ! 
My  sinking  nerve  is  fed,  and  I  am  thine. 

(Enter  Lucuttus,  followed  by  attendants  bearing 
torches.} 

CAIUS. 

Why  do  these  torches  taint  the  wholesome  air 
With  their  thick  smoke  ? 

LUCTJLLUS. 

The  Emperor  orders  it ; 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  59 

For  he  would  drink  the  wandering  breeze  of  night, 
Yet  cannot  brook  the  darkness. 

CAIUS. 

Hath  he  waked 

From  that  dull  stupor  which  we  thought  the  chill 
Of  instant  death  ?     Hath  he  named  no  successor  ? 

LUCULLUS. 

None,  sir.     His  sinews  tough,  tho'  wrenched  and  torn 

By  mortal  agony,  cord  in  the  soul. 

When  some  essayed  to  take  the  signet  ring, 

The  type  of  all  his  power,  feigning  his  words 

Had  bid  thee  wear  it, — lo  !   a  sudden  strength 

Poured  through  the  dying  frame ;  up,  up,  he  sprang, 

With  furious  gesture  cowed  the  cringing  throng, 

And  gasped  for  the  physician.     Charicles, 

Even  at  the  instant  entering,  caught  the  moan, 

And  hurried  to  his  side.     Then  self-abandoned, 

The  dotard  clove  to  him  as  child  to  nurse, 

And  bade  him  quench  the  ceaseless  fire  that  scorched 

The  citadel  of  life. 


60  CHARICLES  : 

CAIUS. 

Then  Charicles 

Would  damp  this  heated  reveller  in  the  dew, 
That  chills  our  festal  garments  ? 

LUCULLUS. 

Craving  strong 

For  the  free  air  Tiberius  uttered  oft, 
Ere  the  physician  yielded  to  his  prayer 
A  slow  concession.     Then  the  fear  of  darkness 
O'erwhelmed  him,  and  these  torch-bearers  are  sent 
To  temper  the  obscurity  he  dreads. 

(Tiberius,  supported  by  attendants,  enters.     Charicles 
follows.) 

TIBERIUS. 

Ay,  here  I  breathe  more  freely ;  and  these  throbs, 
That  beat  so  heavily  the  spirit  out, 
Are  timed  to  slower  measure :  I  had  pressed 
The  bound  extreme,  where  human  misery 
Tears  out  a  passage  through  her  prison  house, 
And  mingles  with  the  ether ;  but  this  blast 
Kindles  the  life  within  me  ;  I  rule  still ! 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  61 


CAIUS. 

Are  you  not  weary,  uncle  ?     The  gray  haze 

Of  morning  glimmered  on  the  distant  hills, 

Ere  your  red  torches  gave  the  world  new  darkness. 

TIBERIUS. 

Weary  ?  no,  no  !   I'm  fresh  and  strong,  good  Caius, 
And  can  outfeast  the  maddest  of  you  all ! 
Ay,  bout  and  brawl  with  any  curly  youth, 
High-flushed  with  nimble  Bacchus  ! 

Take  away 

These  flowers  ; — freshened  by  the  dew-fraught  air, 
Their  odor  sickens  me.     Nay,  Charicles, 
Come  closer — leave  me  not — for  I  would  drain 
A  portion  of  thy  calmness.     Dreams  of  horror, 
And  fears  unutterable  fix  their  clutch 
Here,  here,  even  in  the  heart !     Lo  !  I  may  not, — 
I  cannot  grapple  with  their  thronging  host ! 

CAIUS. 

Mark  you,  Lucullus,  how  he  mumbles  there, 
And  whispers  the  physician.     The  thick  words, 
That  quiver  from  his  lips,  break  on  my  ear 


fi2  CHARICLES  : 

In  music ;  murmuring,  another  hour 
Shall  seat  me  monarch  ! — 

Have  the  messengers 

Sent  by  the  senate  yet  arrived  to  greet  us  ? 
One  of  our  servants  passed  them  on  the  road, 
And  warned  their  speedy  coming.     Do  the  lights 
That  flash  and  hurry  through  the  court  below 
Announce  their  presence  ? 

LUCULLUS. 

Some  unwonted  stir 
Troubles  the  night ; — no  other  cause  can  bring  it. 

CAIIJS. 

Come,  we  will  meet  this  mission ;  for  to  bend 

Most  humbly  to  these  reverent  senators, 

And  their  unwashed  supporters,  is  our  part, — 

At  least  to-day : — to-morrow  ! — Well,  no  boasts. 

Come,  Ennia,  show  these  vassals  what  an  eye, 

And  regal  brow,  shall  dignify  their  crown  ! 

Then  follow,  friends,  and  lift  your  voices  up 

In  sudden  acclamation,  when  they  say 

The  senate  have  preferred  me.     Bring  your  torches,- 

For  he  can  die  by  moonlight.     After  us — all ! 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  63 

(Caius  Caesar  descends  the  hill,  followed  by  all  but 
Tiberius  and  Charicles.) 

TIBERIUS. 

Let  me  lie  here.     Carpet  the  chilly  earth 
With  your  thick  cloaks ;   so,  I  am  patient  now. 
Why  is  this  bustle  ?     The  black  breath  of  night 
Is  heavy  on  us  yet : — I  must  depart 
At  sunrise,  and  ere  night  we  shall  carouse 
At  Capri.     Ha  !  why  go  these  lights  from  us  ? 

CHARICLES. 

See  where  the  moon  rolls  back  the  draping  cloud, 
To  bathe  in  modest  splendor  every  leaf, 
That  flutters  drowsy  whispers  to  the  breeze. 
We  want  no  torches ; — let  them  go  unquestioned. 

TIBERIUS. 

Nay,  I  cannot  support  the  maze  of  fiends 
That  mock  me  with  their  laughter !     Bid  them  return, 
And  let  their  tapers  scare  these  busy  thoughts 
That  thicken  in  the  darkness, — for  their  light, 
Warm  with  domestic  memories,  should  quench  out 
These  shapes  projected  from  the  sable  night 


64  CHA.RICLES  : 

In  livid  streaks  of  fire  !     Yet  'tis  most  strange, 
This  potent  fever,  which  doth  shrivel  up 
My  very  life,  ay,  scalds  each  separate  vein, 
May  not  blaze  forth,  and  lighting  all  the  world, 
Beacon  our  race  from  whelming  misery. 

CHARICLES. 

Look  up,  old  man,  and  with  an  effort  cast 
Thy  soul  upon  the  universe.     Implore 
The  peace  that  rained  upon  thy  boyish  head, 
When,  all  untented,  thou  didst  purely  share 
The  spacious  couch  of  nature.     For  those  orbs, 
Whose  daily  changes,  so  the  learned  dream, 
Direct  our  lives,  stream  something  of  their  power, 
To  bear  above  the  feeble  aches  of  earth 
Their  trusting  worshippers. 

TIBERIUS. 

Weak,  weak,  and  bound 
So  strongly  to  its  loathsome  dwelling  here, 
The  spirit  may  not  mount.     The  light  that  streams 
E'en  through  these  darkened  portals  of  the  brain, 
Withers  the  feeble  remnant  of  a  life 
That  lurks  about  me.     Mutter  not  of  peace  ; 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  65 

The  very  word  bruited  upon  the  night 
Scalds  the  dry  lip  it  passes.     Think  of  him, 
God  Hercules,  whom  the  grief-painting  Greek 
Gave  mighty  verse  to  blazon  forth  all  pain, 
That  could  be  fixed  in  language  !     Dost  thou  not 
Recall  that  misery  intrenched  in  speech  ! — 
The  virgin-chorus  of  immortal  pity  ! — 
Are  they  not  vivid  still  ? 

CHAKICLES. 

Faintly  they  show ; 

For  cares  and  busy  years  despoil  the  mind 
Of  its  best  treasures. 

TIBERIUS. 

Yet  those  verses  now 
Blossom  afresh  within  me,  and  my  grief — 
All  that  is  physical — outwells  in  words, 
That  utter  the  extremity  of  ill 
Our  shrinking  frame  can  suffer  !     But,  oh  here  ! 
Here,  in  the  centre,  grows  an  agony 
That  mocks  expression  : — Thou  life-blighting  pest — 
Immedicable  thought !  thy  potent  fangs, 
Fleshed  deep  into  the  being,  rankle  on, 
5 


66  CHAEICLES  ! 

And  taint  with  blackest  pestilence  the  blood, 
That  trickles  through  the  heart.     Oh  Charicles, 
Drug,  poison,  kill,  this  wolfish  Memory, 
That  from  vacuity  coins  wretchedness  ! 

Why  are  these  voices  ?     Why  went  Caius  Caesar 
So  suddenly  from  hence  ? 

CHAKICLES. 

The  senate,  sir, 

Send,  of  their  gravest  members,  certain  men 
To  hail  an  emperor,  and  confer  with  him, 
Touching  oppression  and  high-handed  wrong, 
That  crimson  all  the  country. 

TIBERIUS. 

Let  them  chafe 

In  their  own  capitol !     Ill-timed  this  visit : 
We  have  no  mind  to  hear  their  stale  complaint. 
They  shall  partake  the  doom  Procillius  knew, 
He  and  his  brother  rebels,  who  would  thrust 
Petitions  hi  our  face  : — Now  strongly  gyved, 
In  Roman  dungeons  they  wear  out  their  lives  ! 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  67 

But  why  went  Caius  to  them  ?     He  will  not 

Cringe,  twist,  and  stoop  before  these  reckless  dolts. 

I  know  him,  subtle,  crafty,  troublesome, 

To  commoners  ;  but  /  have  raised  him  up, 

And,  bounteous  in  my  largess,  steeped  his  youth 

In  every  riot  and  voluptuous  joy 

That  sense  can  hanker  for.     Peevish  restraint 

Harassed  his  frolics  never  :  he  partook 

Each  melting  madness  hot-lipped  Pleasure  flung 

About  our  island  !     He  is  bound  to  me 

By  every  chain  that  patronage  and  gifts 

Can  rivet  on  the  man  fed  by  their  bounty  ! 

They  climb  the  hill — A  throng  of  men  I  see, 

But  none  distinctively.     Are  these  the  fools 

Who  so  desire  to  belch  their  petty  griefs, 

That  they  must  steal  unbidden  to  my  presence, 

And  after  bleed  for  it  ?     Well,  let  them  come  ! — 

And  yet  this  crowd  strikes  marvel  to  my  soul — 

Death !  Are  those  guards  of  mine,  who  cheer  the  traitors  ? 

Where's  Caius  Caesar? 

CHARICLES. 

At  the  head  he  walks, 


68  CHARICLES  : 

Clasping  the  hand  of  one,  whose  dignity 
Acknowledged  by  the  rest,  proclaims  him  chief 
And  spokesman  of  this  mission. 

TIBERIUS. 

Traitor !     Ha— 

Blast  the  suspicion  !     Let  me  up,  I  say, 
For  I  am  young  and  supple  !     Does  he  dare — 
Or  do  these  clamors  thrilling  in  my  ears 
Cheat  my  eyes  also  ! 
(Enter  Gains   Caesar,  Lucullus,  guards,  Messengers,  and 

others.) 

Well,  what  means  this  throng — 
Who  are  these  base  intruders  ?     Answer  me, — 
Or  I  shall  grow  and  blaze  before  your  sight, 
Yea,  rain  down  fire  upon  ye,  that  shall  singe 
With  torture  exquisite  the  very  breath 
That  pants  your  stale  complaining !     Answer  me. 

CAIUS  (aside  to  his  party). 
Be  patient,  friends.     This  burst  of  dying  rant 
Shall  harm  you  nothing — see,  he  reels  and  staggers, 
Grasping  his  servants  for  support !     Again 
If  he  demand  your  business,  hide  it  not. 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  69 

TIBERIUS. 

Speak,  Caius !  lest  the  rage  that  fills  me  here, 
Break  through  the  mesh  of  doubt,  and  marshal  thee 
The  way  Procillius  and  his  comrades  went, 
To  clank  out  treason  to  the  sunless  vault, 
That  tombs  their  wretchedness. 

CAIUS. 

Pray  you  look  there  ! — 
Come  from  the  throng,  Procillius  !  follow  ye, 
Whom  the  just  senate  frees  from  base  restraint, 
And  honors  as  the  country's  patriots  ! 
You  threat  me  with  their  company, — I  claim  it ! 

TIBERIUS. 

Is  this  a  dream  firm-frozen  in  the  brain, 
That  flies  not  with  its  ghastly  comrades  ?     Hence, 
Hence,  hideous  fantasy ! 

Caius,  these  fiends, 

Whom  here  thou  seest  so  thickly  grouped  about, 
Feign  treachery  in  thee — in  thee,  who  knew 
E'en  in  thy  freshest  youth  each  quaint  device, 
That  goaded  luxury  could  think ; — each  subtle  tinge 


70  CHARICLES  : 

Long-wantoned  fancy  could  to  pleasure  add 
Was  lavished  at  thy  word  !     Ingratitude, 
Nay,  black  rebellion,  to  thy  king  and  patron — 
Fie  !  'tis  too  monstrous  !     Make  a  lesser  He, 
Ye  torturing  powers,  for  this  too  gross  deceit 
Bounds  harmless  from  me  ! 

MESSENGER. 

Listen  then  to  those 
Sent  by  the  senate,  to  declare  the  will 
Of  Romans,  too  long  crushed  beneath  the  rule 
Of  thy  curst  monarchy.     Though  gored  and  torn 
By  foul  oppression,  Rome  has  found  the  strength 
To  curb  thy  dying  havoc.     She  defies 
The  carnage-craving  dotard,  stung  to  death 
With  his  own  infamies.     The  noble  men, 
Condemned  to  waste  in  dungeons,  walk  our  streets, 
Freed  by  the  senate ;  and,  by  them  despatched, 
We  linger  here  till  the  quick  hours  shall  give 
Our  state  a  better  ruler ; — till  we  shout, 
Long  reign  Caligula  the  emperor  ! 

TIBERIUS. 
Delusions  fall  from  me,  and  fancies  melt 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  71 

To  bitter  truth.     Shiver  these  senators, 

Ye  direful  pains,  more  cruel  than  man's  wrath 

Can  heap  upon  his  fellow  !   lo,  I  claim 

Your  seething  ministry  to  scorch  these  knaves  ! 

Wrench  ye  and  twist  the  cords  that  bind  their  souls 

In  mortal  agony — but  break  no  thread  ! 

Make  them  groan  out  eternity  in  minutes, 

Trail  their  foul  bodies  through  the  jeering  world, — 

Rend,  shatter,  mangle  them,  that  they  may  know 

A  little  half  of  what  Tiberius  feels, 

And  he  shall  cry  you,  cease  ! — glutted  and  drunk 

With  satisfaction. 

Oh,  I  faint  again  ! 

Where  is  Procillius  !     Softly — let  me  lie 
Here,  on  the  cold  wet  earth !     Oh,  Charicles, 
Wring  from  the  brain  these  bitter  memories, 
From  the  hot  heart  draw  out  this  latest  grief, 
Though  the  life  follow  it. 

CHARICLES. 

Conceive  these  plagues 
But  earth-born  fantasies,  alike  unreal, 
Alike  all  impotent  to  grieve  or  touch 
The  manliest  part  of  life. 


72  CHARICLES  : 

Throw  thy  mind  upward  to  the  fresh'ning  dawn ; 

Mark  where  the  poet  Phoebus  doth  again 

Write  his  rich  fancies  on  the  glowing  mists, 

That  drape  his  eastern  chamber  ! 

How  like  a  lover  every  burnished  rack 

Drinks  his  young  inspiration  !  till  informed 

And  filled  with  music,  the  thick  harmonies 

Gush  forth  to  charm  our  world  with  prophecy 

Of  her  lord's  coming. 

Listen  !   the  touch  of  morning  on  the  plain, 

Makes  every  tree  a  lyre :    Lo,  how  it  sends 

A  soothing  energy  through  every  vein, 

And  pours  abundance  into  weed  and  leaf, 

Through  measureless  creation  !     E'en  to  die — 

Once  more  to  mix  with  the  creative  stream, 

That  bounds  exultant  in  the  waking  brute, 

Blooms  in  the  flower,  and  bursting  grandly  on 

Through  heaven's  high  chamber  hurls  the  blazing  globes, 

Twinkled  in  pallid  clusters  down  to  earth 

To  blend  our  fluttering,  uncertain  thought 

With  passionless  eternity — to  die — 

To  breathe  in  simple  confidence  the  soul 

Forth  to  embrace  the  morning — were  but  sweet 

At  such  an  hour  as  this ! 


A   DRAMATIC    POEM.  73 


TIBERIUS. 

Tangled  in  snares — 

With  nimble  torments  rent — 

What  words  can  goad  the  fancy  to  depart 

From  the  vexed  bulk  that  holds  it !     I  have  dwelt, 

Ay,  wrestled  daily,  with  such  mighty  throes, 

As  treble  singly  the  extremest  plunge 

Of  man's  conception.     I  am  Caesar  yet ! 

Away,  and  let  me  up  !  for  I  am  strong, 

Strong,  to  chastise  these  traitors.     Though  the  breath 

Shall  hoarsely  rattle  in  the  gasping  throat — 

Though  the  thick  words  shall  heavily  presage 

The  cheerless  end  of  nature — though  the  dawn 

Scowls  on  me — I  am  strong  ! — and  do  defy 

This  rebel  senate  !     Seize  this  crazy  wretch, 

And  his  crime-clotted  comrades.     Come,  despatch. 

Then  on  to  Capri !     There  we  do  contemn 

Your  saucy  insurrection.     Pent  and  walled 

In  our  strong  island,  we  do  hold  your  threats 

A  theme  for  laughter  merely.     Barriers 

Shall  there  defend  our  frolics,  while  we  send 

Armies  to  crush  and  scourge  these  carping  dolts 

Into  submission.     Come,  despatch,  I  say  ! 


74  CHARICLES  : 

These  guards  move  slowly  !     Are  they  still  ungyved  ? 
I  cannot  see  them  plainly — Charicles—- 
Be  near  me  still — ay,  let  me  clutch  this  sword, 
For  we  can  fight  our  younger  battles  o'er 
If  need  shall  be  !     Now  lead  me  to  the  house. 
Arouse  our  servants  !     All  the  galleys  wait. 
Nay,  bustle  here,  come — come. — Away  for  Capri ! 
( Tiberius,  supported  by  Charicles  and  attendants, 
is  led  into  the  villa.) 

The  Act  closes. 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  75 


ACT  III. 

Caius  Ccesar,  Ennia. 

CAITJS. 

WE  have  attained  the  summit !     All  the  guards 

Have  softly  echoed  the  great  cry  for  us, 

Which  we  have  wrung  from  Rome.     Their  voices  wait 

The  speedy  word  that  shall  announce  his  death, 

To  cleave  the  air  with  clamor !     We  may  breathe 

And  bask  our  languid  person  in  the  sun : — 

A  little  moment  more  shall  seat  thee  empress, — - 

Reality  absorbs  thy  haunting  hope, — 

And  thou  canst  envy  no  one  ! 

ENNIA. 

Baseless  vaunt ! 

Can  any  gaudy  pomp  of  royalty, 
Or  costly  harness,  which  the  state  binds  on 
To  those  who  rule  it,  satisfy  the  soul 


7f)  CHARICLES  : 

That  restless  dwells  within  us  !     Hope  fulfilled 
Is  but  a  dream  and  fable ! 

CAIUS. 

Yet  the  truth 

Now  spurns  thy  doubting !     See  these  friends  appear, 
Hasting  to  tell  the  best. 

(Enter  Crassus  and  Lucullus.) 

What  am  I  now  ? 

CRASSUS. 

The  Emperor ! 

LUCULLUS. 

Caligula,  the  lord 
Of  Rome,  and  father  of  her  people,  hail ! 

CAIUS. 

Ha,  I  have  grown ; — but  not  above  the  friends 
Who  were  the  first  to  greet  me.     Well,  how  died 
The  terror-stricken  tyrant  ? 

CRASSUS. 

In  a  swoon 
He  faded  from  the  earth ;  upon  his  vexed 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  77 

And  tortured  life,  the  dreaded  shade  of  death 

Descended  suddenly.     His  guilty  soul, 

Quite  vanquished  with  its  griefs,  so  faintly  passed, 

We  might  not  mark  the  moment.     Now  his  trunk, 

Stretched  pale  and  lifeless  in  the  hall  within, 

Is  food  for  mockery  and  bitter  gibes, 

To  the  poor  knaves  he  lorded. 

CAIUS. 

It  is  well. 

Did  Macro  snatch  the  state-conferring  ring 
And  purple  mantle  from  him  ?     These  must  show, 
And  instantly,  on  his  successor — yet — 
Yet  I  am  loth  to  take  them  from  the  body. 

LUCULLUS. 

They  are  stripped  from  him.     Macro  rent  them  off, 
Crying  their  richness  and  authority 
Befit  a  better  ruler ! 

CAIUS. 

Orders  were 

To  do  e'en  thus — he  is  a  friend  most  faithful ! — 
Lucullus,  we  go  in  to  deck  ourselves 


78  CHARICLES  : 

In  these  god-given  trappings.     But  speed  thou, 

Who  here  art  master,  to  the  court  below, 

Where  all  the  guards  are  quartered,  where  a  throng, 

Drawn  from  the  neighboring  country,  press  and  flock 

About  this  reverent  mission — quick  to  hear 

How  beats  the  city's  pulse.     At  once  proclaim 

The  tyrant's  death — and  having  wasted  tune 

In  question  and  reply,  (for  we  must  robe 

To  play  the  regal  part,)  lead  to  this  place 

All  who  may  hear  thy  voice  !     Thou  hast  received 

The  Emperor's  orders. 

LUCULLUS. 

To  fulfil  them  all. 

\Exit. 

CAIUS. 

Go  thou  before  me,  Crassus  ;  I  would  not 
Approach  him  suddenly.     Call  Charicles — 
Nay,  he  is  here  already.     We  have  need 
Of  one  the  people  trust, — he  must  remain 
Till  we  are  strongly  fixed. 

(Enter  Charicles.) 

Receive  our  welcome ! 
Although  we  rise  like  yonder  sun  hi  power, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  79 

Like  him  we  throw  our  benefits  to  all, 

To  thee  as  to  the  others  !     Stay  awhile ; 

For  having  seen,  ay,  and  foretold  as  well, 

This  death  that  is  our  life — the  peevish  tongue 

Of  scandal  cannot  touch  us.     Crassus,  come, 

Lead  us  where  lies  the  decorated  scarf 

Of  our  new  state  !     We  must  return  a  monarch  ! 

\_Exeunt  Gains  Caesar  and  Crassus. 

CHAKICLES. 

Does  the  intrepid  consort  share  the  joy, 
That  she  has  toiled  to  compass  ? 

ENNIA. 

Joy ! — alas, 

The  very  word  doth  shrivel  on  the  lip. 
Well,  well  thou  know'st  how  empty  is  the  thing 
That  we  have  gained — or  seized  most  shamelessly. 
Are  we  not  limited  and  hedged  about 
When  most  our   schemes   have   prospered?     Screened 

from  us 

By  the  black  veil  that  curtains  time  to  come, 
Lingers  our  best  of  life.     A  jealous  hope, 
Crushed  love,  and  honor  lost  forever,  prey 


80  CHARICLES  : 

Upon  us.     Canst  thou  understand  the  pang 
Of  passions  disappointed — canst  thou  dream 
All  that  a  woman  knows,  who  bears  a  heart 
More  finely  touched  and  delicately  wrought, 
Than  those  who  herd  about  her  !     No,  alas  ! 
Thy  stern  and  healthy  holiness  of  soul 
Can  never  paint  the  weary  thing  it  is, 
When  the  blythe  hope  and  confidence  of  youth, 
Drain  drop  by  drop  away.     This  intellect 
Outgrows  your  mock  religions.     Then  to  see 
What  toys  we  are  to  men — to  be  deceived, 
Cajoled  by  promises,  enslaved,  betrayed, 
By  flattery  insulted ! — this,  ay  this, 
Is  woman's  happiest  state.     Unrecognized 
Her  life's  young  fervor,  and  her  sympathies 
Keen,  eager,  sparkling  with  the  freshest  tide 
Poured  from  the  cup  of  nature,  are  repelled 
And  stagnate  into  silliness  or  crime, 
As  she  is  crushed, — or,  burning  into  power, 
Crushes  her  wronger ! 

CHARICLES. 

Woman,  I  perceive 
Through  all  these  bitter  words  a  spot  in  thee, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  81 

That  the  gross  clasp  of  flattery  hath  not  touched. 
Oh  could  it  be,  the  fatal  seal  that  hangs 
Above  this  future  greatness,  might  not  fall 
To  stamp  it  into  being — there  were  hope ; — 
But  now,  I  fear  the  breath  that  feebly  plays 
In  yon  deserted  chamber,  will  quench  out 
Thy  best  of  life  in  parting  ! 

ENNIA. 

Hopes  or  prayers 

Alike  are  worthless ;  for  this  blotted  life 
Hath  passed  already ;  and  our  Caius  stands 
Supreme  and  perfect  master  over  thee, 
As  over  all  below  us. 

CHARICLES. 

No,  not  yet : — 

For  know  the  semblance  of  that  certainty 
That  seats  Caligula  is  counterfeit ;  — 
And  Caius,  like  a  tinselled  player  struts, 
To  ape  the  monarch  merely. 

ENNIA. 

Ha,  deceived ! 


82  CHARICLES : 

Dwells  yet  about  his  heart  the  little  heat 

That  makes  and  unmakes  men  !     Are  we  then  mocked, 

Fooled,  fooled,  unto  the  last !     But  'tis  not  so — 

Or  Charicles  were  near  his  wretched  charge. 

CHARICLES. 

'Twere  madness  now ;  else  would  the  curious  crowd 

Press  busily  about  him,  and  wrench  out 

The  life  that  loiters  faintly.     I  must  seem 

Deluded  as  the  rest,  who  parted  straight 

From  the  spoiled  body.     Yet  a  trusted  slave, 

Obedient  to  my  order,  waits  beside 

This  friend-abandoned  couch,  and  cherishes 

The  slow  returning  life. 

ENNIA. 

Tell  Caius  not 

What  shadows  dress  his  person,  when  he  comes 
To  take  the  people's  homage ;  or  his  hand, 
Bloodied  enough  already,  shall  dispatch 
This  new  created  phantom  ! 

CHARICLES. 

'Twere  the  same 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  83 

To  him,  who  ever  shall  be  shadow-cloaked 

Nor  guess  the  coarse  delusion  ;  but  to  thee, 

In  whom  I  note  that  vivid  restless  eye 

That  looks  beyond  the  present,  this  weak  show 

Shall  never  harden  to  reality. 

Then  let  it  fall  away — and  go  thou  forth 

Purged  and  regenerate.     Nerve  thy  saddened  soul 

To  put  away  these  empty  fantasies, 

That  trick  thee  on  to  ruin.     Know,  thy  will, 

Steeled  first  in  self-denial,  may  dispel 

These  baffling  doubts  that  jeopard  all  thyself  I 

ENNIA. 

It  is  too  late  ! — I  know  not  how  to  cringe 
Before  the  god  your  cunning  fellows  feign 
To  patron  trampled  woman.     For  there  are 
Enough,  too  many,  faint  and  weary  souls, 
Whom  you  can  hold  degraded  and  content, 
Tickled  to  mumm  and  mumble  off  their  strength, 
As  the  sleek  priest  directs.     My  spirit  spurns 
This  refuge  men  have  built  us,  and  I  stand 
Erect  to  suffer — to  despair,  perchance — 
But  proud  to  hold  reason  unravished  still ! 


84  CHARICLES  : 

CHARICLES. 

Thou  hast  not  found  the  mission  of  those  lives, 
That  swell  with  power  forever  barred  from  action. 
'Tis  hard,  most  hard  to  learn  ;  for  we  do  strive, 
Ay,  madly  throe  and  grapple  with  our  fate, 
Too  blind  to  grasp  the  sober  recompense, 
That  compensating  nature  ever  pours 
Where  she  has  much  denied.     The  destiny 
Of  a  proud  woman — who  hath  soul  and  mind 
Too  large  to  fill  with  priestly  mockeries, 
Which  are,  and  ever  will  be,  man's  device 
To  busy  and  to  rule  her — though  it  seem 
Most  bitter,  may  beget  a  sober  joy 
Unimaged  to  the  worldling.     Battle  not 
With  thy  restricted  fate ;  but  gently  yield 
To  what  has  been  ordained.     Thou  hast  no  room, 
Rightly  to  show  the  genius  and  the  strength 
That  riot  hot  within  thee  !     Some  may  not 
Spin  out  their  schemes  for  trapping  to  themselves 
The  glossy  reek  of  flattery,  that  shall  taint 
Those  who  most  fairly  win  it.     Then  pass  out 
Into  the  world  about  us ; — let  this  sun, 
Streamed  through  the  opened  portals  of  the  sense, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  85 

Caress  and  ripen  all  thy  sullen  mind. 

'Tis  only  when  ambition's  galling  spur, 

Bound  in  by  cords  thick-twisted  through  the  heart, 

Is  by  long  sufferance  dulled  and  deadened  out, 

That  we  receive  existence,  and  therein 

Do  learn  to  triumph  nobly.     Our  despair 

Falls  as  a  mantle  as  we  leave  the  broil 

For  the  world's  painted  honors,  and  receive 

From  nature  and  ourselves  the  strength  that  brings 

A  perfect  consolation.     Ennia, 

I  speak  no  foolish  theories ;  but  have  lived — 

And  learnt  most  bitterly  the  truth  I  utter. 

Hear  me  !    nor  weakly  cast  away  thyself, 

That  may  be  saved — still  saved — from  wretchedness  ! 

ENNIA. 

It  is  too  late — too  late  : — A  woman's  life 
Hath  regular  degrees  to  climb  or  fall, 
And  as  we  press  on  each,  the  former  sinks 
Behind  us.     We  can  never  pause  or  turn — 
Fate  whips  us  sternly  on !     Yet  sir,  believe, 
Could  I  have  felt  thy  presence  ere  I  stood 
Before  the  golden  gates  of  womanhood, 


86  CHARICLES  : 

I  had  received  these  gifts  of  form  and  strength, 
To  cast  aside  fragrant  with  purer  use. 

(Re-enter  Gains  Ccesar,  followed  by  Crassus  and 
attendants.) 

CAIUS. 

Are  we  too  soon  arrived  !     Our  court  and  guards, 
Are  they  not  here  to  greet  us  ? 

CRASSUS. 

Nay,  they  climb 

In  glittering  mass  to  hail  thee,  see,  they  toil 
And  labor  to  the  summit.     Now  they  catch 
Thy  regal  robe  flash  welcome  in  the  sun  ! 
Lucullus  waves  his  hand — what  shouts  are  those 
That  answer  !     All  their  caps  leap  to  the  air, 
And  hark  ! — they  cry — "  The  god  Caligula  ! " 

CAIUS. 

The  god  Caligula  !     Physician,  see 

Where  now  I  stand  to  shame  thy  medicines  ! 

Unless  thy  skill  find  quick'ning  for  the  dead, 

As  physic  for  the  living,  I  am  firm. 

The  bond  is  broke  that  held  thy  mumbling  lord 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  87 

Before  the  place  I  craved.     This  jocund  crowd 
Takes  little  thought  of  that  gaunt  spectacle, 
That  coldly  presses  the  wine-spotted  stones. 
What  is  the  profit  of  thine  honesty — 
Thrust  quite  aside,  unrecognized,  displaced 
Before  this  sweeping  surge  of  sycophants  ! 

CHARICLES. 

We  toil  to  be  forgotten ;  and  at  night 

Unnoticed  sink  to  silence.     'Tis  decreed. 

The  sober  daily  duties  of  men's  lives 

Win  from  the  world  no  statues.     Yet  a  tone 

Worthy  the  chords  celestial  that  are  placed 

Harmonious  in  our  grasp,  shall  ripple  on 

And  softly  range  the  ages.     We  must  toil 

To  be  forgotten ;  yet  not  so  the  good 

Or  ill  our  life  shall  furnish.     That  impressed 

On  those  around  us,  and  by  them  bequeathed 

To  all  who  follow  after,  hurtles  still 

Through  the  world's  heart  of  being :  therein  lies 

Our  certain  immortality.     Reflect, 

Thou  future  monarch  !   dare  not  trifle  now, — 

For  every  act  of  thine  peals  far  and  wide, 

Its  proper  note  of  shame  or  blessedness. 


88  CHABICLES  : 


CAIUS. 

We  ask  nor  drug  nor  counsel ;  thou  art  kept 

To  tell  this  crowd  our  uncle  was  consumed 

By  his  own  foul  diseases,  not  dispatched 

By  rumored  treason.     This  thy  work  !     'Tis  mine, 

To  greet  these  heralds  of  my  dignity. 

(Enter  Lucullus,  followed  by  a  crowd  of  guards, 
citizens,  fyc.) 

LUCULLUS. 

Brothers  and  soldiers,  freed  from  bloody  bondage 
Beneath  a  tyrannous  and  galling  yoke, 
Lift  up  your  voices — give  the  heaven  your  caps — 
Cry,  Hail  Caligula  the  Emperor  ! 

(A  great  clamor.) 

CAIUS. 

For  this  most  fresh  and  cheering  welcome,  thanks. 
Know  we  stand  here  untarnished ; — The  grey  wretch, 
Abhorred  by  Heaven,  by  Heaven  has  been  dethroned. 
Our  hands  are  bloodless ; — and  for  proof  we  bring 
This  grave  physician.     Charicles,  declare 
Tiberius'  death,  and  how  our  spotless  self 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  89 

Stayed  not  his  breath  from  lingering  to  this  hour, — 
Our  wish  and  effort  were  that  he  should  live. 

CHARICLES. 

That  wish  is  granted  !     Bend  thine  eyes  but  there, 
Nay,  'tis  no  apparition  !     Lift  again 
Your  pliant  voices — See,  how  strong  he  walks  ! 
Shout  welcome  to  the  god  Tiberius  ! 

(As  Charicles  speaks,  the  doors  of  the  villa  open  and 

discover   Tiberius  stripped  of  his   royal  garments. 

He  breaks  from  an  attendant  who  supports  him,  and 

comes  forward^ 

TIBERIUS. 

Palsy  these  limbs — numb  every  nerve  in  death — 

The  stifling  fury  waked  by  such  revolt 

Would  vent  itself  through  bones  that  had  bleached  out 

A  century  in  the  sun  !     Then  let  me  grow 

And  tower  in  my  wrath  until  I  swell 

To  bulk  tremendous,  and  so  toppling  down 

Crush  out  this  league  of  robbers  ! — 

Caius  Caesar, 

Have  I  not  fed  thy  gross  and  lawless  youth 
With  license  that  is  proverbed  !     Must  I  whine 


90  CHARICLES  I 

And  crouch  to  thee  for  leave  to  die — to  die, 

As  peacefully  as  dog  or  slave,  unracked 

Save  by  the  easy  wrenches  of  decay — 

Not  gored  and  galled  by  black  ingratitude 

Of  a  pride-bloated  kinsman  !     Dost  thou  hear 

These  jangling  words  denounce  thee  ?    Seize  him,  slaves  ! 

Bind  fast  this  puppet  monarch  ! — nay,  keep  place, 

I,  who  have  wrestled  with  such  ghastly  throes 

As  would  have  parched  an  army  into  dust, 

Can  blight  him  singly  !     Ha — now — now, — he  melts 

And  shrivels  at  my  breath — scorched  in  the  blaze, 

That  bursts  about  my  veins,  he  wails  for  mercy 

Ay,  clench  thy  teeth  !     Pray  for  thy  life  to  crack  ! 

We  two  shall  seethe  in  agony  forever — 

Oh  satisfaction  !   bitter  and  most  blest ! — 

CAIUS. 

Appalling  sight !     Keep  this  crazed  babbler  from  me  ! 

I  charge  ye,  drag  him  hence ; — for  though  as  mortal 

A  terror  steals  upon  me,  and  I  shake 

At  this  enormous  prodigy — yet  ye, 

On  whom  the  deadly  flashings  of  his  eye 

Are  not  so  thickly  poured,  may  drive  away 

This  spectre,  ay,  and  stifle  out  the  voice 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  91 

That  growls  these  curses  on  the  dizzy  head, 
Crowned  by  your  acclamation. 

LUCULLUS. 

Friends,  arise, 

It  is  too  late  to  turn.     Come  press  we  on, 
And  in  a  mass  bear  this  sick  tyrant  back 
Into  the  hall.     The  morning  sky  affords 
A  roof  too  fair  for  one  distempered  thus  ! 
Your  voices  given,  there  is  no  room  for  choice — 
Obey  the  Emperor  proclaimed  but  now  ! 
Clear  were  his  words  !     Off  with  Tiberius  ! 

[ A  great  confusion.     Tiberius  is  seized  and  borne  into 

the  villa.     Lucullus  and  Crassus  follow  hastily,  and 

after  them  Charicles.~\ 

ENNIA. 

So  thou  hast  gained  the  summit  of  all  hope, 

And  leav'st  ambition,  and  that  gnawing  ache 

After  the  unattainable,  that  marks 

The  brow,  and  wrinkles  up  the  soul,  far,  far 

In  the  hot  plain  below  !     Incautious  man  ! 

Thy  empty  boast  still  frights  the  laughing  breeze, 

Thy  regal  stride  streaked  in  the  passing  mist, 


92  CHARICLES  : 

Still  throws  fantastic  shadows  !     Strive  again, 
Again,  adore  some  phantom  of  the  mind, 
By  fancy  changed  to  an  external  thing, 
That  lives  in  thy  hereafter  ! 

CAITJS. 

Woman,  cease — 

This  is  no  time  for  mocking.     We  have  gauged 
Our  bliss  too  soon ;  for  it  should  seem  there  dwells 
A  power  beyond  us,  whose  behest  can  change 
Our  certainties  to  dreams  and  emptiness. 

ENNIA. 

Then  pause  to  ponder  wisely ;  nor  despise 
This  scathed  and  blighted  warning  of  a  fate, 
That  lurks  with  horror  to  crush  out  the  reign, 
Blood-stained  and  monstrous  in  its  infamy. 
And  let  that  spark  of  highest  life  to  man, 
That  hid  by  bestial  riot  and  debauch, 
Still  frets  and  festers  in  us,  kindle  up 
And  light  thee  from  the  curses  of  a  world  ! 

CAITJS. 

Peace,  woman  !   what  we  learn  by  prodigies, 


A    DRAMATIC    POEM.  93 

That  plant  their  lessons  in  the  living  eye, 
Words  but  dilute  and  weaken.     We  are  taught 
By  hard  experience,  as  the  chafing  tide 
Smooths  the  rough  pebble  to  a  polished  gem. 
Our  policy,  when  once  the  height  is  gained, 
Shall  work  reforms  most  needed,  and  restrain 
This  court  of  sottish  brawlers  ;  for  I  quail 
At  thought  of  end  so  black  and  direful. 

ENNIA. 

Build  thus  thy  safety,  Caius ;  for  we  know 
In  the  hot  chase  for  luring  dignities, 
Ambition  cannot  bend  to  study  form, — 
But  bubbles  onward,  as  the  nimble  brook 
Leaps  by  the  flowers  that  fringe  its  sedgy  bed, 
And  hurries  reckless  to  the  sea — to  find 
The  waters  salt  and  bitter,  that  from  far 
Glanced  merrily,  and  beckoned  to  the  hills. 
Oh,  keep  about  thee  better  friends  than  those, 
Who  now  in  bloody  passion  seek  the  life, 
That  nourished  all  their  rankness  ! 

CAIUS. 

Nay,  these  men 


94  CHARICLES  : 

Do  patriots  solemn  work,  and  recompense 
Rich  and  abundant — rarely  patriots'  pay — 
Shall  line  their  chests  with  silver.     Yet  I  keep, 
If  princely  favors  are  not  powerless, 
This  calm  physician ; — for  'tis  wise  to  trust 
A  royal  life  to  hands  unparched  by  bribes. 
Hark  !   how  the  growing  tumult  swells  within 
And  breathes  a  tone  of  triumph  !     No  dismay 
Again  shall  wrinkle  the  new  day  in  horror  ! 

(Lucullus,  Crassus,  and  Charicles  enter.  The  crowd 
follow  in  confusion.  Among  them  are  those  bearing 
the  body  of  Tiberius,  which  is  cast  upon  the  earth.) 

LUCULLUS. 

Again  we  do  salute  Caligula  ! 

There  lies  this  pampered  and  remorseless  man, 

The  wreck  and  ghastly  refuse  of  misrule  ! 

The  naming  lights  of  lust  and  cruelty, 

Have  one  by  one  gone  out.     The  dazzling  beam 

Of  mid-day  cannot  tinge  his  night  to  show 

How  dead  the  darkness  lies.     Come  and  behold, — 

At  length  this  mockery  of  humanity 

Hath  wearied  out  his  scourgers. 


A   DRAMATIC    POEM.  95 


CRASSUS. 

And  again, 

Caligula,  we  hail  thee  sovereign, 
And  ruler  of  this  empire ;   and  we  pray, — 
That  schooled  by  this  black  pageantry  of  death 
Ignoble  and  unpitied, — our  new  lord 
Will  tender  well  the  fabric  he  sustains, 
And  purge  this  Asiatic  luxury 
From  court  and  state,  before  it  crushes  out 
Our  ancient  manhood,  and  that  hardiness 
Wherewith  the  past  frowns  on  us. 

CAIUS. 

But  we  doubt 

Our  right  to  rule  e'en  now.     Physician,  say 
Is  he  yet  past  reviving  ? — if  it  be 
He  cannot  wake  to  curse  me,  why,  I  take 
The  title  you  have  offered,  and  shall  build 
With  moderation,  and  determined  zeal 
The  state  you  bid  me  govern.     Yet  declare 
If  dead  Tiberius  be  !    speak,  Charicles, 
For  on  thy  word,  still  shackled  to  the  truth, 
My  soul  shall  float  to  empire. 


96  CHARICLES  : 

CHARICLES. 

Govern  then 

In  quiet  awe  ;  feeling  the  weighty  trust 
This  hour  bestows.     Tiberius  hath  lost 
His  lease  of  black  oppression :   speak  we  not 
Of  his  disgraces  further.     How  he  died 
I  may  not  wholly  answer ;  for  the  crowd 
Thronged  thick  about  the  bed,  and  only  swayed 
As  something  heaved  and  struggled  in  the  midst, 
More  and  more  feeble  grew  the  frequent  throes, 
Till  suddenly  a  stillness  fell  on  all, 
And  then  the  muffled  mystery  of  death 
Shuddered  along  the  chamber !     From  the  face, 
When  Macro  first  uncovered  its  fixed  lines, 
The  startled  crowd  retreated, — and  I  saw 
Caligula  was  monarch.     If  a  doubt 
Still  linger,  lift  that  mantle  from  the  brow 
It  covers.     Thou  shalt  find  a  surer  proof 
Of  thy  high  place,  than  human  breath  can  utter. 

CAIUS. 

No  let  it  lie  :  I  will  not  look  again 
Upon  this  stainer  of  our  race  and  honor, 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  97 

This  Caesar  but  in  title,  unallied 

Unto  the  blood  of  Julius.     'Tis  declared 

That  jealous  zeal  shall  build  again  our  state, 

To  simple  firmness  and  contented  strength. 

And  ye,  whose  clamors  thrust  us  where  we  stand, 

Be  near  our  person,  where  your  fervent  cares 

Shall  win  advantage.     Crassus  and  Lucullus, 

Friends  both,  are  not  forgotten  ; — nay  another, 

By  liberal  favor,  shall  retain  the  place — 

That  he  has  filled  most  faithfully  and  well : 

Know,  Charicles,  our  bounty  bids  thee  wait 

About  us  as  physician,  to  protect 

Our  life ;  as  thou  hast  shielded  that  he  bore, 

Who  was  thy  friend  and  master. 

CHARICLES. 

Pardon,  sir ; 

The  intervention  of  a  solemn  calm 
Between  repose  and  action,  rounds  the  life 
That  nature  offers  man — and  no  light  cause 
Should  break  this  interval.     I  sought  this  court, 
That  tender  skill  of  old  companionship 
Might  somewhat  soothe  the  anguish  of  a  wretch, 
Abandoned  to  the  plots  and  mockeries, 
7 


98  CHAKICLES  : 

Of  those  who  shared  his  loathsome  revelries, 

And  to  the  scorn  of  all.     Look  !  he  has  passed 

His  retribution — I  am  needed  not. 

In  private  quiet  let  me  linger  out 

A  few  short  days  ere  my  release  shall  come. 

For  even  now  impressions,  newly  faint, 

Dislimn  and  vanish,  and  before  the  dawn 

The  consciousness  bounds  into  action — quick 

By  instinct  to  devote  to  life  the  hours 

That  hurry  through  the  closing  gates  of  Time. 

CAIUS. 

Depart  then  at  thy  pleasure  !     'Twas  our  wish 
To  cheer  with  profit,  and  society, 
The  desolation,  doubts,  and  thick'ning  pains 
Which  are  the  legacy  that  Age  receives 
To  sting  him  bitterly  to  craving  death. 
But  since  alone,  inactive  for  the  world, 
Thou  would'st  wear  out  the  remnants  of  the  mind- 
So  shall  it  be — depart  in  peace  and  safety. 

CHARICLES. 

Age  is  not  desolate  :  our  memory 
Concentrates  on  the  flash  of  happiness, 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  99 

That  has  shot  by  us,  and  in  mercy  leaves 

All  else  to  night,  and  silence.     The  serene, 

Pale  twilight,  vespered  by  soft-flowing  notes, 

That  hail  the  parting  of  the  garish  day, 

Melts  lovingly  to  darkness  :  so  the  mind, 

That  feeds  itself  with  labor,  and  retains 

In  wholesome  discipline  its  tenement, 

Shall  fade  most  tranquilly  to  pleasant  rest. 

Uncramped  by  pain, — uncrutched  by  doltish  creed, — 

Nature  invites  the  weary  to  lie  down, 

To  rest  and  live  at  once  ; — to  rest  the  thought — 

To  charm  these  jaded  pulses  of  the  brain, — 

To  dull  the  face,  that  burning  through  long  nights, 

Mocks  the  dark  void  that  shattered  love  has  left ; — 

And  yet  to  live  in  pure  and  passive  life, — 

To  harp  the  tempest  in  the  vocal  oak, 

To  gaze  undazzled  at  the  face  of  day 

In  the  light-craving  blossom, — or  refined 

To  airy  vapor,  drink  the  sunset  in, 

And  rain  its  golden  glories  down  to  men 

In  liberal  profusion.     To  the  soul 

Uncloyed  by  narrow  fable,  unensnared 

By  the  foul  grasp  of  passion,  this,  the  end 

Of  nature,  is  her  favor  last  and  best. 


100  CHARICLES  : 


ENNIA. 

And  is  this  all !  thou,  who  hast  studied  oft 
The  final  shudder  or  the  rarer  smile, 
As  through  the  languid  limbs  oblivion 
Diffuses  its  repose — has  nothing  flashed 
To  light  that  grand  conception  of  our  race, 
Which  builds  up  temples  and  inspires  song  ? 
Shall  we  not  think  this  consciousness  hath  life, 
Distinct  from  form  and  fabric,  and  may  rise 
An  exhalation,  viewless  near  the  earth, 
But  thick'ning  to  a  shape,  as  drifting  on 
Through  thinner  air,  it  basks  in  light  unshrouded  ! 

CHARICLES. 

Nay  !  this  majestic  possibility — 

The  phantom  that  the  fervid  blood  of  youth 

Imbues  with  life,  or  grasping  superstition 

Fevers  for  selfish  profit — manly  thought 

Fails  to  redeem  from  shadow.     Our  research 

Sees  how  the  soul  elaborates  itself 

From  the  coarse  nurture  that  supplies  the  frame, 

With  means  to  grow  and  perish ;  and  we  mark 

How  they  are  one,  together.     We  observe 


A   DRAMATIC   POEM.  101 

A  morsel  undemanded  to  repair 

The  wastes  of  daily  use,  or  an  excess 

In  pleasure  or  in  toil,  unseat  your  gods 

And  fashion  new  religions — shrivel  up 

In  frowns  and  cruelty  the  face  of  Jove, 

Zeus,  Apis,  Belus, — or  what  other  name 

Man  gives  the  deity  diseases  make 

Of  that,  for  which  his  art  can  find  no  shape, 

His  language  no  expression  adequate. 

Then  blemish  not  thy  future,  that  shall  change 

As  damps,  or  study,  or  enfeebling  lusts 

Mope  in  the  wearied  brain  ; — but  calmly  deem 

Perfection  is  before  us,  clearly  glassed 

In  each  pure  fancy  that  the  heart  conceives, 

Yet  feels  too  noble  for  the  wavering  will 

To  strike  into  existence. — Our  best  life 

Breaks  from  the  present,  and  flows  strongly  on 

To  chafe  and  fret  the  barrier,  that  fate 

Builds  round  our  little  knowledge.     It  may  be 

The  glowing  particle  that  wields  thine  arm, 

That  loves  and  suffers  through  these  instruments, 

Shall  learn  to  cast  them, — and  yet  bear  and  know. 

Or  it  may  be  this  chance-commingled  mass 

Of  energy  and  weakness,  shall  dissolve, 


102  CHARICLES  :   A    DRAMATIC    POEM. 

Again  to  mix  with  less  impurity 
In  other  life,  built  on  the  best  of  thine. 
And  thus,  still  changing,  purifying  still, 
All  that  is  guiltless  in  thy  life  shall  live — 
Pervading  time — coursing  its  stream  forever ! 

CAIUS. 

Farewell  physician !     We  respect  thy  wish — 
Depart  with  honorable  furtherance. 
But  let  the  rest  now  follow  us  within  : 
There  shall  our  plans  be  faithfully  unrolled 
How  best  to  use  your  gift ;  for  know  ye  all — 
Since  fate  that  dallied  with  our  expectation 
Hath  lifted  us  to  place — we  shall  rebuke, 
By  clemency  and  sober  watchfulness, 
The  grave  oppressions  that  disturb  this  land. 


THE   END. 


NOTE. 


(103) 


NOTE. 


To  the  brief  introduction  prefixed  to  the  preceding  poem,  ihe 
notice  of  a  few  incidents  is  added. 

The  action  of  the  Emperor  in  the  circus  at  Circejus  is  taken  from 
Suetonius.  The  personal  exposure  and  military  discipline  of  Ti 
berius  when  in  Germany,  are  related  almost  in  the  words  of  that 
writer.  The  cry  of  "  Tiberius  to  the  Tiber,"  with  which  the  in 
dignant  populace  received  the  body  of  the  Emperor,  has  been  an 
ticipated.  The  fancied  address  of  Apollo,  and  the  sudden  fall  of 
the  tower  of  Capri,*  are  suggested  in  a  passage  from  the  same  his 
torian  t  The  arrival  of  a  special  deputation  from  the  Senate  to 
salute  Caligula,  although  not  historical,  is  by  no  means  improb 
able.  Its  dramatic  introduction  may  be  justified  as  the  simplest 
expression  of  the  universal  feeling  of  hatred  and  defiance  for  the 
dying  tyrant,  and  anxiety  for  the  enthronement  of  his  successor. 
The  rage  of  Tiberius  upon  learning  the  release  of  certain  prisoners 
by  the  Senate,  and  his  resolution  to  hurry  to  Capri,  and  there  brave 
his  enemies,  is  taken  from  the  writer  already  quoted.  Both  Taci 
tus  and  Suetonius  name  the  villa  of  Lucullus  as  the  place  where 
Tiberius  suddenly  died.  As  the  latter  historian  gives  several 
accounts  of  the  manner  of  his  death,  and  seems  equally  doubtful 
about  them  all,  the  narrative  of  Tacitus  (as  given  in  the  introduc 
tion)  has  been  followed.  The  liberal  promises  and  hearty  deter- 


*  The  reader  will  have  noticed  that  the  modern  name  Capri  has  been  substi 
tuted  for  the  Caprecr,  of  the  ancients. 

t  Supremo  natali  suo  Apollinem  Timenitem  et  amplitudinis  et  artis  eximise 
advectum  Syracusis,  ut  in  bibliotheca  novi  templi  poneretur,  viderat  per  quie- 
tern  affirmantem  sibi,  non  posse  se  ab  ipso  dedicari.  Et  ante  paucos  quam  obi- 
ret  dies  turns  Phari  terrae  motu  Capreis  concidit. 

(105) 


106  NOTE. 

initiations  of  reform  with  which  Caligula  concludes  the  drama  are 
strictly  in  accordance  with  history.  If  we  can  trust  Suetonius  no 
prince  ever  began  his  reign  with  a  more  noble  and  enlightened 
policy,  or  so  devotedly  attached  to  his  person  those  whom  he  gov 
erned.  A  positive  insanity  has  sometimes  been  suggested  as  pal 
liating  the  subsequent  atrocities  associated  with  his  name. 

It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  remind  any  reader  that  the  uncer 
tainty  regarding  a  future  state  of  personal  existence,  attributed  to 
one  of  the  characters  at  the  close  of  the  poem,  is  supposed  to  come 
from  one  ignorant  of  Divine  Revelation  upon  that  point.  Whether 
a  reasonable  assurance  of  such  existence  is  independent  of  special 
revelation,  is  a  question  upon  which  the  author  expresses  no  opin 
ion — it  being  sufficient  for  his  purpose  that  many  men  of  mature 
judgment  and  enlarged  culture  have  thought  it  was  not.  As  an 
swering  an  objection  to  the  different  treatment  of  this  subject  in  a 
former  drama,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  remark,  that  in  an  age  of 
simplicity  and  faith,  human  beings  swayed  by  the  strongest  emo 
tion  of  youth — a  passion  which  in  its  first  intensity  seems  to  bear 
the  impress  of  immortality — may  arrive  at  conclusions  unnatural, 
in  an  age  of  luxury  and  skepticism,  to  one  long  past  the  period  of 
life  when  the  affections  govern  and  absorb  the  being. 


tti/ 


A    000  036  400     o 


